New Process for Apple Storage

Lake County Mail, Issue 45, 14 April 1948, Page 7

New Process for Apple Storage

Much progress has been made in the storage and preservation of apples in recent years. The practice in England about 50 years ago was to spread the apples in a single layer on a rack in a cool, moist dark cellar. By this means apples could be kept for up to five or six months, but there was always a certain amount of wastage.

When refrigeration was used to preserve primary products, there gradually developed a technique of holding apples in cool storage at a temperature slightly above freezing point. The critical temperature' for best results varies from 32 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the variety of apple. Although cool-storage technique has now reached a high standard, the apple is still a perishable product. It is not dead fruit, but continues to live and breathe even when in cool storage, although its life is limited. Experience has shown that the maximum period in which it is practicable to store apples is eight or nine months,

but the usual period varies from three to six months.

Early in the 1930’s Dr Kidd and Dr West, two British scientists developed experiments in holding apples in carbon-dioxide gas storage. Evntually they were successful, and prior to 1939 there were many small gas stores throughout the fruit-growing areas in England. The work in England was closely studied by New Zealand scientific officers, but local tests quickly revealed that the technique developed in England was not always suitable for New Zealand fruit. The fruit officers of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, with the Fruit Board and later the Internal Marketing Division, conducted experiments. Although some of the early experiments failed, research has now reached the stage when the D.S.I.R. can define the appropriate conditions for successfully storing several of our important New Zealand varieties of apples for periods slightly longer than by the previous methods. Not only does the carbon-dioxide gas storage lengthen the storage life, but the fruit from a gas store is superior in appearance and taste to cool-stored fruit.