Nemeskert Ltd relies on Airocide technology to reduce the percentage of rot in tomatoes

Nemeskert Ltd is a second-generation family company, that was established in 1975, located in the souther part of Hungary. The company owns 13 hectares of greenhouses which are heated by geothermal energy. Their main product is tomato, of which 9 hectares are planted, and the annual yield of it is 4 – 4500 tonnes. The secondary products of Nemeskert Ltd are green pepper, hot green pepper, cucumber, and lettuce. Since 2014 the company has an audited packaging facility with cold rooms.

Material and Methods

The comparative study was made in two equal-sized cooling rooms (12 x 20 x 3 meters). For the study four sample products were used from four different producers; the samples were marked product 1, 2, 3, and 4 and each of the samples was placed in both cold rooms. The cold rooms are marked “B” and “D”. Both rooms are set to 14 Celsius degrees. Cold room “B” was equipped with an Airocide GCS-100 Air Purification System. Cold room “D” is equipped with an ethylene filtration system, which filters were changed seven days before the beginning of the study. At the beginning of the study (2016.08.03.), samples were taken from the four products for laboratory analysis. At the end of the trial (2016.08.30.), samples from the same products were once again sent to the laboratory and this time separate analyses were requested for the samples stored in “B” and “D” cold rooms. Ethylene gas measurement was made by a Bioconervacion ppm Ethylen unit, with a measurement range between 0-99.9 ppm.

Results

As a result in cooling room “B” only a few mold spots could be detected, the stems of the tomatoes were still green, and had no mold on their surface. In the cooling room „D” mold appeared on the stems of the tomatoes, while no such issue occurred with tomatoes stored in fridge “B”.

About Airocide

Airocide Photocatalytic Air Purifiers by STERILUMEN contain the same NASA-developed technology that is used in a variety of Airocide product lines. In addition to serving the floral and perishable preservation and food safety industry the Airocide technology has been developed to kill/remove/eliminate airborne pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms in vegetative and spore states (bacteria, mold, viruses, and dust mites), allergens, odors and harmful volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in the air in a variety of commercial, government, and residential market applications including the medical healthcare industry (Airocide is listed as an FDA Class II Medical Device).