360 quality
The 360 Quality Association , founded in 2006, was formed by reefer shipping companies , reefer pools and port terminals that transport, transship and store refrigerated goods. The focus is on the closed cold chain from production in the country of origin to landing in the recipient country. The aim of this association is to maintain, improve and document the quality standard in the cold chain.
Cold chain
For the quality of the refrigerated goods, a closed cold chain - from the plantation to the ports, ship transport to the supermarket - is of the greatest importance. Where this chain begins and how many nautical miles it has to cover on this route, however, varies from product to product and of course also depending on the means of transport. The focus here is on refrigerated ships; in 2010 there were around 1105 refrigerated ships with a cold storage capacity of 291 million cbft below deck or 345 million cbft if the refrigerated container spaces on deck are taken into account. In the past, for many tropical fruits it was especially so-called boards from associations of planters that ensured good quality of the fruits and the cold chain. In the case of the year-round harvested and landed bananas , several large, vertically structured fruit associations had formed and established themselves , which control the cultivation, shipping and marketing of the bananas.
Refrigerated goods
According to the statistics, world trade in perishable goods was around 160 million t in 2010 (approx. 115 million t in 2000). About 85 million t (2000 approx. 58; 1984 approx. 24.5 million t) were transported by sea, ie in reefer ships and reefer containers. Bulky cargoes such as meat, fish , citrus fruits and bananas are transported almost regardless of the season throughout the year. The seasonal fruits such as grapes, apples and pears are mainly transported from the south to the north between February and May. The berries, stone fruits and exotic fruits that were previously mainly transported by air are now increasingly being transported by ship. An environmental advantage, as the CA technology ensures a longer shelf life, enables ship transport and thus results in lower costs and low CO 2 emissions.
These perishable goods are transported refrigerated over long distances in order to reach the port of arrival in good quality. Frozen goods are predominantly transported by container ships in refrigerated containers, while fruits are predominantly transported in refrigerated ships. Few large, vertically structured fruit associations have established themselves, particularly for bananas that are harvested and landed all year round. In the case of seasonal fruits, especially in Australia and South Africa, there were marketing organizations known as “Boards”, which often emerged from associations of growers. Quality standards were drawn up, laid down and monitored by the boards. The fruits of the planters were temporarily stored in the boards' warehouses, so that it was possible to collect entire shipments, charter ships, and market the fruits overseas. The boards have lost their importance, have often disappeared, as the European and American retail chains in particular often buy directly from the producers.
Ports
Fruit loading ports
Modern container ports and traditional fruit ports differ like day and night. While the former, with their deeply dredged docks and container terminals, can also manage large ships with many thousands of standard containers on board, many traditional fruit ports in Latin America, for example, have shallow water and little infrastructure. For the refrigerated ships loading there, this means that, unlike a container ship, they have to carry their own loading gear.
Port of discharge
Ship's own pallet cranes now compete with land-based cranes, elevators, pallet discharge bridges and container cranes on the fruit terminals . The so-called sideloaders with semi-automatic elevators, which are supported on board by forklifts , are an interesting alternative for rapid and largely weather-protected handling . White ships in front of modern elevators , pallet bridges and spacious, temperature-controlled transshipment halls with integrated cooling cells with road and rail connections characterize the image of these ports today. Banana ripening houses have set up shop directly in the port to save time and a transport process.
Transport technology of refrigerated goods
cooling
Meat, fish, butter, cheese and other frozen goods are brought to the appropriate temperature (pre-cooled) in the onshore cold stores of the exporting countries, but are not dealt with further here. The only requirement of the means of transport is that the temperature must be maintained. For this purpose, a 30 to 60-fold air exchange without fresh air supply is set.
Pre-cooling is desirable for fruit, but not always possible in many loading ports due to the lack of infrastructure. While seasonal and citrus fruits are mainly loaded pre-cooled, the cold chain for bananas in most cases does not begin until the ship. The fruits are harvested as soon as the ship arrives and are cut, portioned, bathed, disinfected, labeled, packed in cardboard boxes on the plantations in so-called packing houses and then come on board loose or on pallets. Here they are quickly cooled down to the transport temperature of 13 ° C for the first one to two days. A high cooling capacity is therefore an important prerequisite for reefer ships.
Fruits and vegetables have a metabolism (fruit respiration), after the harvest they consume oxygen (O 2 ) and in turn give off heat, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water, as well as aromas and ripening gases. Because of the heat development, an 80 to 100-fold air exchange with fresh air to flush out the ripening gases is set for good heat dissipation. Depending on the intensity of the fruit breathing, the internal and external quality of the fruit also changes.
Innovation for improved transport quality
In the last 15 to 20 years, several innovation steps have been triggered, some of which were only noticed by experts:
- The introduction of the Controlled Atmosphere (CA) with lowering the oxygen content and increasing the carbon dioxide content results in fewer losses in the transport of fruit and a reduction in the quality losses caused by transport.
- The increase in the cooling capacity in connection with CA leads to a very rapid reduction in metabolism with the advantage of a faster cooling phase.
- The optimization of the ship's construction and the enlargement of the ballast water tanks enabled greater ship stability and stowage of more refrigerated containers on deck, which led to an increase in productivity.
- In addition, the output of the auxiliary diesel was increased in order to provide a higher electrical output to power the reefer containers on deck.
- In many cases, additional facilities were created to connect the refrigerated containers on deck of the refrigerated ships to the central MA / CA supply
- The improvement of the ship lines resulted in lower ship resistance and, in connection with the use of efficient drive motors and propellers, led to reduced fuel consumption of modern refrigerated ships.
Modified atmosphere
Today we speak of a modified atmosphere (MA) if an ideal temperature for the fruit is maintained while the oxygen content is reduced. Theoretically, the oxygen content in the well-insulated cargo holds and largely gas-tight holds would be reduced by the so-called self-breathing of the fruit, but that takes too long. Instead, the oxygen is flushed out of the hold with nitrogen. This nitrogen can easily be obtained from the ambient air, after all it is 79 percent of the main component. The reduced oxygen content leads to reduced fruit breathing and slows down the loss of quality of the fruit during transport.
Controlled atmosphere
An environment with a controlled atmosphere (CA) goes even further, here, in addition to the temperature and the oxygen content of the air, the CO 2 value in the cold rooms is also regulated. CA can increase the carbon dioxide content of the air, act as a growth inhibitor for putrefactive agents such as fungi and bacteria and further facilitate the transport of the sensitive cargo. However, the limit values of the fruit must be observed so that the fruit does not suffocate or be damaged by excessive CO 2 content.
This means that the last generation of reefer vessels has made considerable progress, particularly in its core segment, the transport of fruit in the hold. The cooling of bananas and the central CA supply are not yet offered by other types of ships. In addition to the inexpensive CA transport of large quantities of refrigerated cargo in the hold (bananas, apples, kiwi, citrus), demanding goods such as mango, avocado, melons, asparagus, berries and, in the future, perhaps also flowers in small cargo units on deck in CA refrigerated containers are under expert supervision transported by the reefer crew.
monitoring
The monitoring of the refrigerated ships and the technical facilities is carried out, as with other merchant ships, during the design and construction by classification societies such as B. LR, ABS, GL, BV and the national professional associations. In the rest of the ship's life, these companies and authorities carry out regular controls and inspections specified in the regulations. In addition, port state controls are carried out in Europe in order to check not only the safety devices but also compliance with environmental protection standards. For the task of the refrigerated ship, the demanding transport of temperature-sensitive frozen goods or sensitive living refrigerated goods such as fruits and vegetables, additional quality standards were deemed necessary, as the boards have largely disappeared.
literature
- Hochhaus, K.-H .; Idler, L .; Wild, Y .: Refrigerated Containers and Controlled Atmosphere in Ship Transport, Handbook of Shipyards, Volume XXI. Schiffahrts-Verlag "Hansa" C. Schroedter & Co., Hamburg 1992
- Wild, Y .: System-technical investigations into the use of controlled atmosphere (CA) for cargo handling on reefer ships and reefer container ships. Dissertation, TUHH 1993, work area electrical energy systems and automation
- Hochhaus, Karl-Heinz: Deutsche Kühlschifffahrt (1902-1995). Verlag HM Hausschild GmbH, Bremen 1996, ISBN 3-931785-11-4
- Hochhaus, K.-H .: Cold applications on ships. In the textbook of refrigeration technology, 4th edition, Volume 2, 1997 CF Müller, Heidelberg, ISBN 3-7880-7509-0
- Hochhaus, K.-H .: 10 years CA in refrigerated shipping. In: International Fruitworld. No. 4/2002, Verlag Agropress, Switzerland, ISSN 1422-2337
- Hochhaus, K.-H .: Innovations in reefer ships. Fruit World International, No. 1 2007 Verlag Agropress, Switzerland, ISSN 1422-2337
- Hochhaus, K.-H .: Glandien, H .: Cool: Reefer technology with a future: refrigerated ships; Market, Transport and Perspective. Seehafen Verlag, Hamburg 2007 ISBN 3877438180
Web links
- http://www.360quality.org
- Europe's fruit harbors: http://hochhaus-schiffsbetrieb.jimdo.com/europas-fruchth%C3%A4fen-146/