CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Need for Cold Storage of Agricultural Products
The term ‘cold storage ’refers to the storing of agricultural products in a refrigerated atmosphere. This means adequate amount of heat is removed from the storage container or room to help keep the item in often food fresh to delivery, long or short term storage.
Cold storage help prevent spoilage of food and other items meat for consumption, and it can be used in a variety of other setting such as in hospitals, warehouses, and any where else that stores product is in need of preservation .when transporting goods, refrigeration trucks are often used to keep items cold throughout the transportation process.
The room or compartment system in which items are stored for cold storage must be insulated properly for several reasons. The insulation helps maintain a particular temperature within the storage units. it help prevent cool air from escaping from the unit, which would otherwise lead to higher refrigeration costs and energy waste, and it help prevent the temperature outside the storage unit infiltrating into the storage.
In many cases, the temperature within a cold storage unit can be manipulated by adjusting a thermostat, a cooling unit and packing procedures should facilitate easy cooling of products being transported. This method is commonly used to transport perishable foods, flowers meats, and even human organs intended for transport blood is also refrigerated during transport so it can be used later for blood transfusion.
Home refrigerators can be considered cold storage units as well .refrigerators are used to prolong the life of food to be eaten, and they prevent spoilage of perishable food ,in the past ;ice boxes were used instead to keep food cold, but this method was inefficient as regulating the temperature of school structure was often difficult, some types of ship features cold storage units in which temperature can be regulated, in the past fish that were cold were stored in container filled with ice, and the ship[would have to return to port before he ice could melt and allow the fish to spoil
1.2 Definition of Storage
According to ajiboye [2007]define storage as the process of keeping parts of the crop produced during the season of abundant production to ensure its availability during the off production period.
Storage is the act of storing product for future use. And also storage can be defined as the maintenance or retention of retrievable data on a computer or refrigerator and other electronic system. Perhaps the most domestic’s item of food .storage is the fridge or freezer in which a wide variety of foodstuffs are contained and preserved throughout the use of low temperature. Storage is where products are being held safe and in good condition [farlex depart 2003-2012] .
1.3 Flavor and Nutrition Value of Agricultural Products
Freezing is one of the eldest and most widely used methods of food,-preservation of taste texture, and other method. Freezing also retains the quality of agricultural products, overlong storage products like fruits, vegetables and other nutrition properties, the process involves lowering the product temperature generally to 18℃.the physical, state of food materials is changed when energy is removed by cooling below freezing temperature, the extreme cold simply retards the growths o micro-organism and slow down the chemical changes that affect quality or cause food to spoil [fennema et al. 2010]
1.4 Economics Importance of Cold Storage
Cold storage are carefully designed to meet the clients need and purposes from project management to the final construction of the facility, every little details is taken care of until the whole facility is completed. Cold storage is actually know how much of the food we eat is kept fresh before, during and after transit without it, meats, fish, vegetables and fruits would spoil quite quickly.
Cold storage helps to prolong the shelf life of fresh goods they are also effective in reducing the amount of waste and lengthening the time fame per marketing these foods. It is importance to retain adequate circulation of the air within a store and around the produce to ensure efficient cooling.
The main important factor in cold storage is ambient temperature. as a rule the temperature in cold storage is higher than1-2℃ ,which is the freezing point temperature of stored fruits and vegetables .stored products must not be freezing n the cold storage [cemeroglu and acar 2009]ozkol[2008]reported that there is heat transfer during the process. Tashtoush [2007] investigated process of heat and mass transfer during cold storage of fruits and vegetables and determined a mathematical model for presenting these processes. Equations are solved for different cold storage conditions.
