A Belgian cooperation of over 1.450 fruit and vegetable growers manages over 300 cold storage rooms, with sizes ranging from 500 up to 1500 m³. The cooperation aims to provide high quality foods through continuous innovation. To enhance product preservation in cold storage rooms, they were in search of a fast & effective application that would disinfect their cold storage rooms to prevent cross contamination of newly delivered products. Their endeavor had so far only resulted in disinfection techniques that required too much time or proved insufficiently effective, until they contacted the Roam Technology expert team.

The challenge

Fruit and vegetables are stored after harvest in cold storage rooms in order to maintain high quality products until they have reached the end customer. Storage of the products at low temperature will inhibit or slow down the growth of a wide variety of micro-organisms. Even at the minimal temperature achievable without damaging the products, certain food and plant pathogens can still thrive. Good hygiene practices in the cold storage rooms are therefore important in guaranteeing the highest quality. Regular disinfection of empty rooms will prevent accumulation of bacteria and fungi and will eliminate the possibility of these micro-organisms infecting new incoming products.

Our solution

The Roam Technology expert team went on site to evaluate the current microbiological contamination in the cold storage rooms. Disinfection of the rooms with a fogger, provided by Roam Technology, in combination with Huwa-San TR-50 was performed. The concrete floor was additionally treated by spraying Huwa-San TR-50 to assure successful results.

The results

Fogging a Huwa-San TR-50 dilution results in effective disinfection of the walls and ceiling, eliminating nearly 90% of bacteria and fungi present before the treatment (Figure 1). Furthermore, a strong reduction of micro-organisms in the air is achieved (95% reduction; Figure 1). Additionally, the floor samples taken after disinfection show a strong reduction of micro-organisms due to the supplementary disinfection with a Huwa-San TR-50 dilution.