"We've made a number of important technological advancements in our operation," said David Roth, president of Cecelia. "Now our goals are to increase our volume and become a more substantial player in citrus industry."

Cecelia is expanding into the Bakersfield/Maricopa and Delano/McFarland areas of Kern County. The company recently purchased 1,500 acres there and will be planting more citrus soon.

Cecelia Packing was founded in 1978 and after slightly more than a decade of operation was purchased by Jim Cotter of Los Angeles in 1989. That is also when Roth joined the Cecelia team. Cotter now owns some 1,500 acres of citrus in the Orange Cove area. Plus, he is a partner on another 1,500 acres and manages 450 more acres.

In the 80's the company shipped about a half million cartons annually. Now that volume has been increased three times, to 1.5 million packages a year of navels, Valencia's and mineolas. Cecelia has about 50 grower members representing approximately 4,500 acres from Bakersfield to Clovis.

Packing, management and office staff amounts to more than 100 individuals and during harvest, picking crews total between 150 and 200.

Over the past five years, Cecelia has modernized and computerized its operation, adding a high-tech pressure washer, a new optical grader and state of the art optical fruit sizer. During this technical renovation, Cecelia also constructed an additional 2,000 square-foot office for sales staff, field representatives and office personnel.

In an effort to keep their packing and shipping operations at the highest standards, Roth and his team also tackled the minor decay problems they were experiencing with some of their export shipments.

"Anything shipped in excess of 12 to 18 days was questionable," he said. "We tried different waxes and chlorine washes, but didn't see our decay problems disappear until we started putting Ethylene Control sachets in each carton of citrus bound for the export market."

Originally, Roth experimented with EC sachets in approximately 20,000 cartons of citrus that Cecelia shipped to Hong Kong. He reported that all the packages of fresh fruit arrived in "excellent" condition. Cecelia Packing ships about 120,000 cartons to Hong Kong and another 80,000 cartons to Japan every year.

"For the past two years we've had 'zero' claims when we used the sachets in our Hong Kong shipments," he said. "We are very pleased with all our export arrivals and there are no side effects.

"Ethylene Control sachets have become a valuable asset and that's why we continue to use them. Besides, now that our customers have seen the difference, they request that we include Ethylene Control sachets in all their shipments," Roth said.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If you happen to be visiting Cleveland, you've got to eat at Richard J. Baribault's TeaHouse Noodles, a "Nu Asian Diner" that is attracting people who want fast food, but want to eat healthy. Not only does he prepare tasty and healthy Asian-inspired dishes, but also has learned how to keep his produce the very freshest.

Three years ago, Baribault and his wife Kathy opened their tiny TeaHouse Noodles, probably the only noodle house in Cleveland. They plan on opening in several mall locations where he sees a need for fast, healthy food.

Baribault, who traveled extensively around Asia two decades ago, patterned his noodle house after those he saw in every Far East village. "Everywhere I went -- Singapore, Japan, Thailand -- there were noodle shops on practically every corner," he said. "You could see exactly what you were getting, and the food was easy, quick, and good."

To keep good health and freshness at the forefront of his TeaHouse Noodles operation, Baribault discovered Ethylene Control filters and sachets, which keeps produce as fresh as possible. "Occasionally I had problems with produce in the cold box turning brown. However, since using the Ethylene Control filters and packets I've been able to stretch the freshness of our produce well into the week," Richard said. "On Mondays, I routinely prepare a large supply of vegetables to be used in the restaurant during the week. I put them in their own storage containers with a couple Ethylene Control sachets in each container and that maintains their freshness for at least four days. As we expand to other locations, we will prepare our produce for all our restaurants at one location and send the bins of fresh vegetables to each location without worry of losing the edge on freshness."

The basic dish of the house is a blend of crisp, freshly steamed bok choy, nape cabbage, snow pea pods, carrots, onions, bean sprouts, and jicama, loaded onto mounds of nutty California brown rice or firm Thai rice noodles caressed by Baribault's original sauces. Vegetarians love the menu and carnivores can add chicken or shrimp to their noodle or rice bowl. He relies on a lot of fresh produce and only steams his vegetables -- no oils or flames.

The diner's juice bar offers a selection of hot teas, freshly squeezed juices and cold smoothies made of yogurts, banana and various fruit juices.

One of the simplest ways to remove ethylene from the atmosphere is to absorb and oxidize it with potassium permanganate.