A new year brings new challenged to the produce industry. In every case, we are trying to do our jobs better and more efficiently to provide our customers, and eventually the consumer, the very best. If you want your story to reach thousands of produce industry people, Fresh Perspectives can be your vehicle with important information for everyone, from the growers to the retailers. We appreciate hearing from you about your ethylene management challenges.

United Offers Food Service Industry Seminar In Yuma ATX Trucking Of Tacoma Finds Export Quality Answers Fractal Looks Ahead To Next Decade Fresh Practice - A Matter Of Science Upcoming Events Refrigerated Foods Association Conference - Feb. 22-24 Rancho Mirage, California FreshWorld '96 - Feb. 22-26 New Orleans, Louisiana International Fresh-Cut Produce Association Conference - March 21-23 Atlanta, Georgia California Farm Equipment Show - Feb. 13-15 Tulare, California

In United's "Safeguarding Your Facility" session, S.J. Maltabano, of Bano Quality Produce, Southern Louisiana, warned not to compromise on the quality control elements of the business. As a distributor, he stressed the importance of: keeping the holding room temperatures constant between 34-36 degrees; keeping pallets at least six inches from the walls; not losing the cold chain in the staging area; and maintaining an ethylene filtration system throughout the facility. Another session, "Menus in the Next Decade," focused on cost as the number one factor driving menu development. Panelists agreed that suppliers should get involved in early stages of menu development and new product testing.

Swiger, who also the president of two other companies, Accurate Maintenance and Accurate Maintenance and Accurate Technologies of Washington, Inc. -is now recommending that all his customers shipping apples and other valuable produce to the pacific Rim take precautions to manage ethylene offgasing.

"We suggest that all our customers include filters in their truck loads and sea containers to control ethylene, a gas which is naturally given off by fruits and vegetables during the normal ripening process," Swiger said.

The predominant apples being shipped through ATX to the Pacific Rim region are Red Delicious, Fuji and Gala-all naturally heavy producers of ethylene.

Swiger said that the reminder to manage ethylene was driven home dramatically recently when one of two sea containers of apples from Brewster in eastern Washington, bound for Indonesia, was sent without a filter to oxidize the ethylene.

Apples in the container without the filter showed a marked difference in overall arrival condition,

The apples in both containers came from the same lot, but after the 21-day journey, customers in Indonesia said they didn't want any more of the shipments sent without the ethylene filters.

"The apples arrived in Indonesia soft, had low pressure and poor flavor, The container outfitted to manage ethylene gas, however, held about a four-pound advantage when pressure tested for freshness over the apples in the other container. And by contrast, they had good flavor and were crisp, not mealy," said Swiger.

A typical sea container carries 53,000 pounds of apples and most shipments through export take from two to three weeks, plus a few days extra depending on the final destination. ATX handles more than 100 loads a month to the export market and some 75 loads through intermodal rail a month which goes throughout Washington state.

Ethylene Control products are now being used by mango shippers from South and Central America who send fruit to parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world. Mangoes are medium producers of ethylene and highly sensitive to ethylene gas. Likewise, the number of apple shippers using ethylene control is growing rapidly. More firms in the Pacific Northwest, especially in the state of Washington, are using ethylene management to protect their apple shipments. The story about ATX Trucking in this same issue, addresses this industry trend. University of California researchers indicate that apples may go soft, lose crispness and flavor without proper ethylene management.

Scott Driscoll, vice president of the Post-Harvest Division and development a priority and cooperates with several universities, including Clemson and UC, Davis, to stay on the leading edge of industry technology.

Fractal was organized in 1985 and the post harvest division was created in August of 1995 to address the humidity and ethylene concerns of the grower, packer and shipper through to the distribution centers. "Since these were two very important atmospheric conditions so that we can bring the product to the retailer in optimum condition and reduce the shrink factors. Traditionally, temperature was the only thing considered," Driscoll said.

Fractal's progressive humidification systems use an air atomization approach that prevents boxes from breaking down and surface moisture from accumulating, said Driscoll. This superior technology is available thanks to a high-tech proprietary nozzle that creates tiny micron droplets of water that are absorbed into the air and distributed throughout the walk-in box, trailer, wet produce room, or ripening or degreening room.

"On the ethylene side, Ethylene Control products distributed by Fractal are of superior strength with greater percentage of potassium permanganate impregnated into the Zeolite for a much more effective ethylene removal system," he said. "on the retail side, Fractal has been working with humidification and ethylene since 1990. The effectiveness of those technologies in the retail sector led to the establishment of the post harvest division."

Working on an on-going basis with growers, packers and shippers throughout North America, Mexico Central and South America to develop mew methods to improve handling of perishable commodities.

Thanks to new technology, the fruit and produce industry can now manipulate the ripening process in the opposite direction by keeping excess ethylene gas out of the storage environment. That's the role Ethylene Control products play in keeping your produce fresh!

Power Pellets, sealed in teabag-sized sachets, or used in a EC-3+ Filtration System, which produces high levels of nascent oxygen that helps eliminate excess ethylene to keep produce and fruit from ripening prematurely. Proper ethylene gas management will boost a company's bottom line profits.

"Gala and Fuji apples without proper ethylene management, will experience a more rapid deterioration and loss of firmness. Gala produce more ethylene than Fuji, but scientists find that keeping ethylene levels low in both varieties reduces the susceptibility to scald. Both Gala and Fuji appear to be "slightly to moderately susceptible to scald."
University of California, Davis, California, Post harvest Outreach Program

"We are very pleased with our EC-3+ filtration system. We have kept apples and pears in our cold storage through April and Maintained very good quality. We begin storage August 15 and used only two pails of Power Pellets. It worked great!"
Scott Hagee, president, Pheasant Valley Orchards, Hood River, Oregon

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