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NHB recommends common types of modern cold storages
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Saturday, 14 February, 2009, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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A cold chain expert committee report has been released recently which reviews and analyses the underperformance of the existing storage/ cold storages for fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers and sketches a plan to meet the future requirements of storage and also suggests a roadmap to launch a cold storage network in the country.
However, commenting on the existing nature of cold stores in the country, the report says that the storages are outdated and in a dire need for upgradation.
In response to the report, the National Horticulture Board has provided some designs and suggestions to counter the outdated cold stores in India.
The NHB has recommended some common types of modern cold storages and their design details.
One recommendation of the Board is building collection centres for a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. These centres require ultra high humidity of 95% + and temperature ranging between 0° C to 10 ° C. These units normally have facilities of pre-cooling attached with a cold store which can maintain variable temperature and ultra high humidity conditions for short-term storage of produce.
Mobile pre-cooling and collection centres are ideal for growing areas that lack basic infrastructure and also for areas where the horticulture cropping patterns are seasonal and hence the mobile facility can be re-located across the country in a short period for maximum utilisation and therefore results in lower investment and operational costs.
Second, the Board has suggested building up of single/dual commodity cold stores, multi-commodity cold stores with modified atmosphere (MA) control system and high humidity cold stores associated with pack houses for export of fresh horticulture produce, giving a detailed report of their design, utility, strengths and weaknesses.
The Board has also suggested a rough outlay for upgrading the existing cold stores in the country.
The existing potato cold store is mono commodity based, less energy efficient and almost 50% capacity utilisation. Such stores are not maintaining the ideal storage parameters resulting in value loss and deterioration of produce quality. These cold stores do not meet the required hygiene and sanitation requirements for the purpose of tapping the export markets. The cold stores are mainly dependent on manual labour for handling the produce which further make them unviable.
It has recommended the CA cold stores, a new type of cold stores in the country whose couple of prototypes have been established, especially in north India due to apple availability. They are meant for long-term storage of apples and other selective temperate fruits with storage periods over 10 months.
Second, Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) Unit. These cold stores may also include cold chain linkages, mainly refer trucks to transport frozen products to the consumption points.
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