European demand for 'turbo ripening' of fruit increasing
Frigotec GmbH from Germany, with its patented Softripe fruit ripening system, successfully introduce…Frigotec GmbH from Germany, with its patented Softripe fruit ripening system, successfully introduced "turbo ripening" function in the Softripe ripening programme, customers get another tool to react to fluctuating supply, market and sales situations.
"Every ripening company is familiar with situations where the availability of ripened goods in-house becomes a major challenge due to delivery delays or orders received at short notice. With the turbo ripening function, the ripening time can be shortened even further, if necessary, while maintaining high fruit quality. This is another interesting advantage of the Softripe technology in practice," explains Frigotec Managing Director Roland Wirth.
Over a longer period of time, this new function was successfully tested with several Softripe customers. Besides the unique and self-adapting Softripe ripening algorithm, the use of modern speed-controlled EC fan technology makes this ripening acceleration possible.
"During the normal ripening cycle, the EC air fans run at reduced speeds to save energy. During turbo-ripening, the speed is automatically increased to achieve faster temperature changes on the fruit. This allows us to achieve maximum planning and handling flexibility for the ripening operation. In addition to the previous automated and precisely timed standard Softripe ripening and CA storage of ripened fruits, ripening can now be significantly accelerated and shortened if required," Wirth continues.
Since the market launch of this new ripening technology with numerous projects in Europe, demand for it has been rising sharply as ripening companies as well as retailers see and want to use the benefits in practice.
"The consistently positive feedback and plans from our customers make us very confident about the market development of Softripe. In addition to the already established fruits such as bananas, avocados and mangoes, initial test ripening’s with other interesting fruits are showing ground-breaking results. We from the Softripe team are pleased to be able to offer the fruit and retail trade an important contribution with this innovation in the future topics of fruit quality, energy consumption, shortage of qualified staff and sustainability."
