Controlled atmosphere

How does it work?

Maintaining the freshness of fruits and vegetables after harvest is based on the optimization of two processes: slowing down their breathing, and limiting the evaporation into the air of their internal water. Used in cold rooms, the Janny MT modules provide this double optimization in a natural way.

The 1st of the modern technologies of storage that is used right up to the consumer's home is of course the cold. This cold will provoke a first decrease in respiration, thus providing a first potential extension of storage.

When the Janny MT lid is clipped onto a bin filled with products whose breathing intensity is reduced by the cold, its tightness seal maintains the humidity of the stored products. Its selective permeability membranes stabilize oxygen and CO2 levels between 1 and 5%, using the O2 absorption of the products' breathing as the engine. This decrease in oxygen causes a second decrease in respiration, thus further increasing the possible duration of storage.

The simultaneous adjustment of the 3 pillars of storage (temperature, relative humidity & O2 / CO2 balance) obtained in the modules placed in cold room thus provides the best storage quality in a natural way: this is the Janny MT sustainable quality.

The same equipment (the modules) works on more than 20 vegetables, 15 fruits, 3 mushrooms and 3 species of flowers. It is just needed to close more or less membranes, thanks to the removable caps, to adapt the equipment to the stored product.

1

Harvest

of your fruits, vegetables, flowers, mushrooms...
2

Cooling

open module in cold room
3

Storage

closed module in cold room
4

Readaptation

open module in cold room
5

Sales

of your fruits, vegetables, flowers, mushrooms ...

The benefits of CA bins

Weight loss reduction

In a cold room the products are generally stored in opened crates or bins. The cooling is ensured by a cooling unit that circulates air in the room. When the air is cooled by the cooling unit, it dries out before being ventilated. In contact with the products to be cooled, the air heats up and then acquires a capacity to absorb humidity: it thus captures a little water each time it passes over the product, and thus gradually makes it lose its freshness and possible crunchiness. For example, on apples or cherries, weight losses of around 10% are common at the end of storage in conventional packaging; for a product such as chestnuts, this can be as much as 20%!
With the Janny MT process, these are the modules that are cooled. It is then the walls of the modules that cool the products without drying them out; the weight loss is then reduced to a maximum of 1.5%. For products sold by weight, the economic gain is obvious.
Increase in marketed volumes

The Janny MT process gives growers and marketers the ability to shift sales, depending on the product, by several days, weeks or months from harvest. This ability allows them to harvest or purchase products even if the market is not able to absorb them immediately. Cherries left on the trees, or leeks left in the field that end up crushed after bolting, are examples of non-harvest losses that become avoidable: the products can be quietly picked at optimal maturity, to be then sold according to market needs. Some losses due to bad weather can also be avoided.
Losses in the field or during storage are therefore reduced, which converts into increased volumes sold at the right time for the market.
Maintain quality during storage

Having the possibility to keep freshness and quality longer gives more time to market the products in first quality. As a result, many users of CA modules have greatly reduced their need for processing. There is no longer any need to send apples to the industry: they can be marketed fresh for several more months.
Given the price differences between 1^st category and industry, the economic benefit is major.
Choice of sales channel

Another mechanical consequence of increased post-harvest flexibility is that there is no longer a need to sell at low prices due to downgrading when conventional cold no longer maintains quality.
Products can be offered for longer periods of time, much to the delight of consumers. This is thus possible with more remunerative prices for growers and distributors. !
Choosing the best time to sell

Agricultural raw materials are, like other commodities, subject to the law of supply and demand. When a production peak occurs, the market can quickly become saturated with commodities, causing prices to fall.
Having the capacity to preserve products for longer periods of time while keeping their freshness allows the marketing of part of the volumes harvested during the peak season to be shifted to the off-season, often at more advantageous prices. For example, our peony growers customers, whose production peaks in spring, have a major economic interest in shifting their sales to the wedding high season in summer. Similarly, blueberry growers have an interest in selling their August production at the end of September.
A destocking flexibility unmatched in CA

Only take out of storage the quantities necessary for the market needs, and keep the rest of the volumes in optimal storage conditions.
CA modules are the only solution that combines such flexibility in storage with the shelf life allowed by optimal O2 and CO2 levels.
And more...

The interests cited above are all drawn from the experience of our clients. But if we wanted to be exhaustive, we would also have to detail how the use of CA modules, possible with several products successively during the same season, allows some to save on labor, to free themselves on weekends, to accelerate the rotation of their crop plots, to simplify their technical itineraries, to build customer loyalty... but we prefer even more to explore all this with you by accompanying you in the setting up of your storage project!