Food
Protect Food from Harmful Bacteria, Mould And Volatile Organic Compounds
The Airocide® Bioconversion Units have been proven to more than double the shelf life of bananas. It works on berries, stone fruit, and greens as well. Growers, shippers, cold storage facilities and retailers use it around the world. Industry leading grower Esmeralda Farms has deployed it in their seed propagation facility in South America. Del Monte has made it a standard in their avocado rooms in the United States. World-class retailers like Whole Foods, SuperValu and Asswaq (U.A.E) are using it in their stores. Wineries like Opus One, Sawyer and nearly 70 other vintners trust Airocide® Bioconversion Technology in their barrel rooms to prevent mould from attacking their fine pressings. World-class distributors like Arteflor and Coflores in Madrid depend on Airocide®. Yet Airocide® bioconversion technology is still one of the industry’s best-kept secrets. Now you know it.
Here’s How Airocide® Bioconversion Technology Increases Profits.
Airocide® Bioconversion Units are a food preservation technology so powerful that it eradicates virtually all the ethylene gasses that spoil inventory as well as mould and bacteria. Making food safer and making it stay fresh longer. More inventory equals more sales opportunities and profits — no matter which role of the farm to fork process you are involved in.
Born from NASA, Airocide’s revolutionary technology allows you to drastically reduce shrinkage, improve food safety and provide the freshest produce to your customers. Allowing you to do more with less.
Airocide® Bioconversion Technology uses no filters, has nothing to clean, is virtually maintenance free and runs on as little power as a light bulb.
You could easily add 10 to 15 percent to your net profits simply by employing this unique, affordable technology. Just imagine what this technology will do to increase your bottom line.
Growers and Packers
As a grower, you wage a battle not only against the elements, but also airborne contaminants. From ethylene, to cross-contamination from mould spores, bacteria and mycotoxins; the fight to keep produce as fresh and safe as possible is unceasing. Yet most of the threats to your work come from airborne contaminants you can’t even see.
By installing Airocide® Bioconversion Units where your harvest is stored you can eliminate virtually all airborne mould and ethylene gas, as well as bacteria, viruses, and pathogens in that environment.
As the first step in the food chain, with today’s emphasis on food safety and traceability, your operation is the first to be blamed if your crop can’t survive delivery to the store or is somehow contaminated. Discover how your contemporaries are winning the battle by storing their post-harvest products in Airocide® Bioconversion Technology-protected environments.
Shipping and Transport
You don’t have to be the 'Fall Guy'. Your reputation rides with every container of goods delivered, so the need to provide fresh produce to your sellers is essential. However, it’s fraught with obstacles. Good performance, of course, means sellers are more likely to use your services again, but contaminants hinder your ability and your profits.
You’re on schedule, your equipment is working normally, and when you loaded up, the produce looked fine. Yet when you unload, it smells mouldy. There may even be some spots forming on the walls. And the crop you are carrying looks tired and sad. Suddenly, people begin to blame you for the deterioration.
But of course it’s actually the harvest sabotaging itself. Along the way, undetectable mould spores flourished, while the produce’s natural ethylene gas accelerated the ripening process; the enclosed space only compounding the issues. Sure, you’ve tried potassium permanganate filters, pellets and sachets but with only limited success. You’ve spent the money and watched them change color as they quit working.
But what if you could eliminate the mould. Eliminate the ethylene. Even eliminate fungi, bacteria, viruses and volatile organic compounds and do it continuously without the expense of those band-aid solutions?
You can.
Install an Airocide® Bioconversion Unit in your refrigerated rooms and you’ll be amazed at the results. Airocide® Bioconversion Units eliminate virtually all airborne mould and ethylene gas, as well as bacteria, viruses, and pathogens regardless of how small that enter its reaction chamber. With Airocide® Bioconversion Technology you can significantly increase produce freshness, which will give grocers the same benefit. Give them this key advantage - and get more business in return.
Cold Storage and Food Warehousing
Elimination Is The Best Solution. Food safety, traceability and sustainability are the three key words that resonate throughout the industry today. Be lacking in any one and you could be out of business.
With material coming into your facilities from numerous suppliers, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of where each product came from—to say nothing of what contaminants came on them. Every time a new shipment arrives so does mould spores, mycotoxins, viruses, and bacterium. One crop can easily infect another.
Even scrubbing down coolers on a regular basis doesn’t keep mould from building up on the walls. Meanwhile trapped ethylene gas accelerates maturation of produce. And if there is shared space between different crops, cross-contamination between them is a problem. Until now, it has seemed like a never-ending battle.
But cold-storage professionals are finding out the secret; a NASA developed and perfected product called Airocide® Bioconversion Technology.
Airocide’s unique bio-conversion-technology system doesn’t filter. It actually eliminates ethylene gas, mould, fungi, bacteria, viruses and even volatile organic compounds—simply by molecular-conversion. By eliminating the culprits, labor is reduced and produce is saved. And that’s truly a breath of fresh air.
Food Retailers and Markets
You Are The Brand. Fresh produce is at the heart of a supermarket. Customers may come in for the price, but they look to you for freshness. It’s up to you to keep the product fresh, with plenty of appetite appeal. Keep it safe. Keep damaged product out of your displays at all times. And all this depends on you. Yes, you are the brand.
You deal with issues the customer never sees. Mould spores in the air. Airborne bacteria. Cross-contamination impacting flavour when incompatible produce is stored together and with cold storage space at a premium that may be unavoidable. To say nothing of the accelerated ripening/spoilage and loss in profits that ethylene produces.
It’s a heavy burden but one that Airocide® Bioconversion Technology can lighten.
Put Airocide® Bioconversion Technology inside the cold room and watch the shelf life of your produce increase along with the safety and quality of the product you provide to your customers. Just install an Airocide® Bioconversion Unit in the cooler. It’s as easy as that.
All with a machine that uses no filters, has nothing to clean, and it is virtually maintenance free. It’s green friendly - running on as little power as a light bulb. Leaving you with smiles on customer’s faces and an increase in your profits.
Food Case Studies
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Video Case Study – Avocado and Citrus Cold Storage Facility – Pharr, TexasList Item 1
London Fruit, Inc. is a full service cold storage and packinghouse located in Pharr Texas. The fifty person staff in this five cooler facility, grades sizes and re-packs avocados and limes imported from Mexico. Primus Labs most recent audit rated them at 99% on a scale of 100 for food safety. They report that by using Airocide® they have achieved total airborne bacterial elimination and 95% reduction in mold.
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Video Case Study – 110,000 Square Foot Cold Storage and Packing Facility – Donna Texas
Bland Distribution Services (BDS) opened its 110,000-square-foot facility in November 2008 in the Rio Grande Valley community of Donna, Texas. It offers fully customizable cold storage, logistics, packaging, and warehousing services. The company is committed to providing superior service and food safety assurance by its participation in the industry respected Primus GFS food safety program. BDS exceeds the basic food safety requirements of the FDA for excellence in food safety.
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Video Case Study – Edinburg, Texas National Produce Distributor
In business from the late 1960’s, Nicho Produce has grown to serve national chains with a wide variety of fresh produce as well as it’s fresh cut operations handling all types of product from Avocados to Zucchini and everything in between. Nicho added Airocide® bioconversion technology into its format specifically to reduce shrink and achieved close to a fifty percent reduction in shrink along with a 10-day increase in shelf life.
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NASA publication describes how Airocide® bioconversion technology has been found to be capable of destroying Anthrax.
Spores that pass through the box aren't filtered, they're fried," says John Hayman, Chief Science Officer for Akida Holdings, the manufacture and marketer of Airocide® bioconversion technology. "That's appealing," he notes, "for people who don't want to change an Anthrax-laden air filter."
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University of Wisconsin Laboratory Study of Airocide® bioconversion technology's performance in controlling Anthrax
A total of 60,865 spores entered the reactor and of this inoculum, a total of 5 CFUs exited the devide and were collected on the surface of the seven sets of blood agar plates over the 70-min sampling period. After each 10-min sampling period culture plates were covered and labeled. A total of 14 culture plates were incubated overnight at 35 degrees Celsius. The CFUs of B. thuringiensis were counted and recorded for each culture plate.
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FDA notification of Concurrence of CDRH, Office of Device Evaluation (ODE) - Division of Anesthesiology, General Hospital, Infection Control 510(k) Number K023830
Trade/Device Name: Airocide TiO2, Regulation Number: 880.6500, Regulatory Class : II, Product Code: FRA, Dated November 18, 2003.
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Air Quality Sciences (AQS) Ozone Evaluation of an Air Cleaner Device “GCS-25 Rev 3”
Airocide® bioconversion technology was tested in a 1m³ dynamic environmental chamber following the guidelines of ASTM D 5116 (1). Ozone monitoring was conducted with a Thermo Environmental Model 49 Ozone Analyzer. This analyzer operates based on the strong UV absorbance of ozone at 254 nm. The chamber was continuously monitored for ozone over a five hour period. Ozone, if any, was below the minimum quantifiable level of 10 μg/m³ (5 ppb (parts per billion).
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University of Wisconsin Environmental Chemistry & Technology Program, Analysis of Effluent from Airocide® bioconversion technology
Tests were conducted in August of 2002 with analyses conducted in August and September. The effluent from the Airocide® bioconversion technology device was sampled and analyzed to determine gas species and concentrations. Ozone was found to be below detectable levels and the volitile organic compounds were found to be very low in the ppb (parts ber billion range).
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National Renewable Energy Laboratory - Mineralization of Bacterial Cell Mass
Whole cells deposited on a titanium dioxide-coated surface have been oxidized in air to carbon dioxide via photocatalysis. This paper provides the first evidence that the organic matter in whole cells can be completely oxidized.
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Research Summary – Tomato Repacking Facility; Florida, USA
A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in a 28,500 ft3 tomato ripening room/cooler at a major tomato repacking facility in Riverview, FL to measure the reduction in airborne mold and airborne bacteria. The system reduced the amount of airborne mold in the cooler by an average of 90.5% after a 72-hour period. Airborne bacteria were found to be present at sufficiently low levels to be considered insignificant.
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Research Summary – Organic Produce Wholesaler; Netherlands
A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in a refrigerated cooler inside a warehouse of a large organic produce wholesaler located in Holland, to determine if the technology would reduce the amount of airborne mold present. The three (3) ACS-50 systems utilized for the study reduced the amount of airborne fungi inside the cooler by an average of 96.8%in 72 hours.
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“A Study on the Elimination Power of the Airocide air purifying system of Ethylene, Mold and Bad Odors Inside Cold Rooms” – Cartagena Polytechnic University, Spain
A study was conducted in Balsapintada, Murcia (Spain) utilizing the device, in two different cold rooms filled with peppers and melons respectively. The Airocide® bioconversion system has proven to efficiently remove ethylene (by 58.1%), CFUs and VOCs concentrations in cold storage indoor air as well as that it is applicable to different stored produce.
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Research Summary – Wholesale Citrus Warehouse; Valencia, Spain
A test was performed to determine if Airocide® bioconversion technology could reduce the presence of airborne mold in a 42,000 ft3 refrigerated warehouse containing oranges. Air samples taken seven (7) days after operating the system showed an 80% decrease in all airborne mold spores from air samples taken before the system was turned on. There was no evidence of blue or green mold spores in the second round of air samples, which represents a 100% reduction of these harmful molds.
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Research Summary – Tomato Cooler, Regional Produce Wholesaler; Alberta, Canada
A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 19,500 ft3 tomato cooler of a regional produce wholesale company in Alberta, Canada. The study was conducted during three days of normal business activity. The results show airborne mold reduction inside the cooler of 54% in 24 hours and 62% in 48 hours. Airborne bacteria in the same cooler decreased 75% in 24 hours and 100% in 48 hours.
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Research Summary – Independent Organic Supermarket; Georgia, USA
A clinical study of the Airocide® PPT air purifying system was conducted in the 1,300 ft3 refrigerated walk-in cooler of Return to Eden, an independent organic grocery store in Atlanta, GA. The results show an average airborne mold reduction inside the coolers of 89% in 48 hours, and an airborne bacteria reduction of 67% in the same time frame.
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A study on the elimination power of Airocide® bioconversion systems on ethylene, mold and bad odors inside cold rooms.
The presence of harmful elements that affect stored fresh produce inside cold rooms is a well known problem to the industry. Within these harmful elements, the organic volatile compounds (named VOCs from now on) represent one of the biggest worries. VOCs existence is a consequence of the stored produce own metabolism, and mold spreads through the air in a spore form; and also the ethylene, that although we can include it within the VOCs group. This study, presents the results obtained after a few tests conducted in the SAT 9821, CFM group in Balsapintada, Murcia (Spain) utilizing the Airocide® bioconversion system, in two different cold rooms filled with peppers and melons respectively.