How SmartFresh™ brings sustainability and energy savings
SmartFresh™ technology not only protects your produce, but also helps reduce energy use for the good of people and the world.
A range of studies has quantified the positive energy savings customers get when using SmartFresh technology—proving that the use of SmartFresh together with controlled atmosphere storage can contribute significantly to improved energy efficiency and lower carbon footprint without compromising quality.
Due to the lower metabolism and respiration rate of SmartFresh fruits, fewer hours are needed for refrigeration, defrosting, ventilation, O2 addition and CO2 scrubbing. When SmartFresh is combined with changes in the storage regimes (for example, night cooling or increase of storage temperature), the energy efficiency is even more noticeable: carbon footprint reductions and cost savings are measurably higher.
Reduction of CO2 emissions: up to 53%
Average energy savings: up to 7500 kWh during 6 months of storage (36% savings)
Energy savings during storage
In one study, Gala apples were stored with SmartFresh technology at 4°C, while the control apples were stored at the standard temperature of 1.5°C. The SmartFresh storage room used 35% less energy than the control storage room. A sensorial study carried out after storage clearly showed consumers’ preference for SmartFresh quality apples.
This study also revealed a decrease in weight loss for fruits stored with SmartFresh technology, which led to a weight gain of 630 additional kg. (Kompetenzzentrum Obstbau-Bodensee, Germany).
The Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige has proven that quality benefits with SmartFresh technology for Italian Red Delicious and Fuji are still excellent if the apples were cooled exclusively at night. The lower costs of electricity during nighttime represent cost reductions of about 50%. In addition, the lower metabolism of the SmartFresh fruits significantly reduces the need for CO2 scrubbers.
At the end of the storage period, important energy savings were calculated (28% to 34%) and CO2 release was greatly reduced (between 29% and 55%).
Carbon footprint reduction during transport
SmartFresh technologies also lead to energy savings in transport. For example, SmartFresh quality avocados can be shipped from the southern hemisphere in regular air conditions, but without SmartFresh technology they need controlled atmosphere conditions, which involves necessarily higher energy consumption. Also shipping from the southern hemisphere, South African SmartFresh quality plums can be kept longer at 7.5°C instead of -0.5°C, reducing energy consumption.
