Fremont, Calif., USA & San Jose, Costa Rica – June 1, 2010 – Purfresh, a provider of clean technologies that purify, protect, and preserve our food and water, today announced that Sielsa, the largest produce distribution warehouse in Costa Rica, has integrated three Purfresh® Cold Storage systems as a key component of the company’s new state-of-the-art facility. The warehouse, which opened in April, will house multiple commodities including bananas, pineapples, and melons for export, as well as imported apples, stone fruit, and table grapes. Sielsa installed Purfresh Cold Storage to reduce mold and diseases, control ripening, and eliminate cross contamination from one company’s product to another.
“When we committed to building a new distribution center, our main objective was to create a leading edge facility by imploring proven industry-leading solutions that would increase efficiencies, enhance food safety, and protect produce quality,” said Mr. Richard Loeb, president of Sielsa. “By installing Purfresh Cold Storage, equipped with Intellipur, it validates our commitment to helping our customers provide the highest quality fresh produce possible to consumers around the world.”
The patented Purfresh Cold Storage technology assures an unprecedented level of food safety and quality combining a scalable, plug-and-play ozone-based solution specifically engineered for refrigerated storage environments with Purfresh Intellipur® online analytics—a powerful information service that includes environmental sensing, web-based monitoring, alerting, data reporting, and analysis along with remote control and diagnostics. These new advanced technologies allow Sielsa to effectively regulate the ripening process and control decay while maintaining overall fruit quality in its controlled atmosphere rooms.
“Given the competitive landscape and pressure that produce exporters and importers are currently experiencing, it is crucial for warehouse facilities to offer the most advanced technologies and optimal conditions to help deliver the best product to market,” said Mr. David Bouchard, general manager, post-harvest and transport solutions for Purfresh. “It is a pleasure to work with Siesla, and we are honored they chose Purfresh Cold Storage for it new modern facility.”
Sielsa’s new facility, which contains more than 18,000 cubic meters of refrigerated storage with 12 shipping docks, is strategically located ten kilometers from Limon, Costa Rica where more than 95 percent of Costa Rican produce is imported and exported. The majority of the fresh produce stored at Sielsa’s facility will be shipped to the United States and Europe. In addition to controlling temperature, humidity, and providing real-time alerts, Sielsa has the capability to cool down field temperature produce within 24 hours.
Recently, Purfresh announced research results which demonstrated that controlled supplementation of ozone in cold storage conditions was able to kill and control the spread of important foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, by more than 99.997%, Listeria monocytogenes, by more than 99.999%, and E. coli O157:H7, by as much as 99.9%.
Source: Purfresh Inc.