Foods and beverages: apparatus – Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere – Automatic control or time means
Patent
1997-06-11
1998-08-11
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Subjecting food to an enclosed modified atmosphere
Automatic control or time means
99470, 99486, A23B 7148, A23B 7152
Patent
active
057912360
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates in general to a system for controlling the air composition within a storage room for breathing vegetable products contents of the atmosphere in the storage room and composition in the storage room, signals and supplying control signals to oxygen contents controlling means.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Such systems are as such known from the prior art e.g. from EP 0 457 431. To store vegetables, fruits or cultivated plant products during a longer time period within a storage cell it is preferred to change the air composition within the storage cell to obtain an improvement of the storage life of the stored products. In general especially the carbon dioxide pressure is increased whereas the oxygen pressure is decreased. Periodically air samples are taken and analyzed to measure especially the oxygen contents and/or the carbon dioxide contents. If the oxygen pressure is too high then said oxygen pressure can be decreased for instance by introducing nitrogen. The carbon dioxide tension can be decreased for instance by guiding a part of the air in the storage room through means for removing CO.sub.2 from said air. Dependent on the type of products which have to be stored in the prior art systems the oxygen pressure is set to an experimentally determined fixed percentage and the desired air composition can be maintained by introducing the nitrogen and/or by introducing or removing carbon dioxide.
A significant disadvantage or this prior art system is that in fact the whole air composition control is based on a preselected empirically determined nominal value for the oxygen tension. However, said predetermined fixed value should not be the most optimum value under all circumstances. Furthermore said parameter will be different dependent on the type of vegetables or fruits which have to be stored in the respective room.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is now to indicate in which way the air composition can be controlled such that the oxygen tension is always near its optimum value whereby the normal breathing of the vegetables, fruits or cultivated plant products is as low as possible without the occurring of fermentation.
A further object of the invention is to indicate in which way the system can be embodied such that independent of the type of products to be stored an optimum control of the air composition is obtained.
These objects are fulfilled in a system as described in the first paragraph, in that metabolites in the vegetable products at the transfer of normal breathing to fermentation and controls the oxygen content controlling means such that the vegetable products are stored in an air composition in which the oxygen contents is as low as possible without fermentation occurring.
A preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention is characterized in that the storage room comprises sensors for measuring the oxygen content and the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere within the storage room, that based on the varying values measured by said sensors the processor determines regularly the ratio between the carbon dioxide produced by the vegetable products and the consumed oxygen, and that the processor operates such that the oxygen contents in the storage room is decreased as long as the calculated ratio is approximately equal to 1, and the oxygen contents is increased in case the calculated ratio is larger than 1. In this embodiment the development of metabolites is measured indirectly by determining the ratio between the produced carbon dioxide and the consumed oxygen. At normal breathing this ratio is approximately equal to 1 because in general the amount of produced carbon dioxide is equal to the amount of consumed oxygen. A decrease of the oxygen tension has hardly any influence on this ratio until the point where fermentation starts. As soon as the oxygen tension is so low that fermentation starts the ratio shows an abrupt strong increase. If this situation occurs then the oxygen tension has to be increased. In other
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Instituut Voor Agrotechnologisch Onderzoek (ATO-DLO)
Simone Timothy F.
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