“To improve sweetness of the berry, protect quality and extend shelf life, the temperature of a berry needs to be reduced as soon as possible after being picked,” says Gregory Smith with ColdPICK. “For each hour in delayed cooling (at 70°F), a day of shelf life is lost,” he added. “Often, berries are waiting on a pallet for a while prior to being picked up from the field.”
Cooling 1,000 lbs. per hour
After a berry grower in Washington State made the comment ‘why can’t we take the cold chain to the grow site’, Smith set the goal to design an option for post-harvest pre-cooling at the harvest site. After a series of follow-up meetings, the ColdPICK was conceptualized. The requirement from the grower was to pre-cool 1,000 lbs. of berries per hour which equaled the amount of berries a picking crew could field-pack in one hour. Additionally, Nathan Dorn with Reiter Affiliated Companies proffered “that it was preferred for the machine to cool in columns, so the forced air cooling was applied across the flat, which would result in the berry being cooled in a uniform fashion quickly.”
The start of ColdPICK International LLC followed and the ColdPICK Crew was engineered, designed and manufactured in 2014. The unit is able to reduce the temperature of berries from ambient (core harvest temperature) to 32⁰F in a time frame of one hour or less. “For berries picked at 95⁰F, cooling time takes an hour,” said Smith. “However, if picked at 75⁰F, cooling time is even less than an hour.” The ColdPICK Crew Mobile unit is currently operating at a raspberry site in Oxnard, but is already scheduled to be at a blackberry remote site in May. “The machine is designed for berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) as well as other fruits and vegetables with high respiration rates,” said Smith.
Stacks of berry cartons are staged for pre-cooling
Reduced time to market
“Not only does the quick reduction of berry temperatures result in better quality and longer shelf life, it also reduces material handling at the distribution center cold chain,” mentioned Smith. “Less labor is involved with pallet touches and furthermore, the time to market is reduced. Another benefit is that elimination of the need for a permanent cold chain could open up remote growing sites that may have a reduced cost per acre.” Smith added that “the cost of ColdPICK Mobile Pre-Cooling is similar to the combined cost of the material handling and post harvest pre-cooling at the third party cold chain on a cost per pound basis.”
Blast tunnel door is being closed. Next column cartons will enter in 6 min.
The ColdPICK Cross - Dock System allows for shipping directly from market to the grow site. Two units of ColdPICK Crew and a Cross Docking System would allow a full truckload of berries to ship daily.
For more information:
Gregory Smith
ColdPICK International
Tel: 863 581-7279
Nathan Dorn
Reiter Affiliated Companies
Tel: 805 218-7028