Controlled Atmosphere Storage of Fruits and Vegetables, Second ...

4 Chapter 1The term controlled atmosphere storagewas not adopted in Britain until 1960 (Fidleret al., 1973). Smock also spent time with Kiddand West at the Ditton laboratory. The CAstorage work at Cornell included strawberriesand cherries (Van Doren et al., 1941). Adetailed report of the findings of the Cornellgroup was presented in a comprehensive bulletin(Smock and Van Doren, 1941), whichgave the results of research on atmospheres,temperatures and varietal responses of fruit,as well as store construction and operation. Inaddition to the research efforts in Davis andCornell, several other groups in the USA werealso carrying out research into CA storage.CA storage research on a variety of fruits andvegetables was described by Miller andBrooks (1932) and Miller and Dowd (1936).Work on apples was described by Fisher(1939) and Anon. (1941), work on citrus fruitby Stahl and Cain (1937) and Samisch (1937),and work on cranberries by Anon. (1941).Smock’s work in New York State Universitywas facilitated in 1953 with the completion oflarge new storage facilities designed specificallyto accommodate studies on CA storage.Commercial CA storage of apples in theUSA began in New York State with McIntosh.The first three CA rooms with a total capacityof 24,000 bushels were put into operation in1940, with Smock and Van Doren acting asconsultants. This had been increased to100,000 bushels by 1949, but the real expansionin the USA began in the early 1950s. Inaddition to a pronounced growth in commercialoperations in New York State, CA storeswere constructed in New England in 1951, inMichigan and New Jersey in 1956, in Washington,California and Oregon in 1958, and inVirginia in 1959 (Dalrymple, 1967). A CA storefor Red Delicious was set up in Washingtonstate in the late 1950s in a Mylar tent, wheresome 1000 bushels were stored with goodresults. By the 1955/1956 season the total CAstorage holdings had grown to about 814,000bushels, some 684,000 bushels in New Yorkstate and the rest in New England. In thespring of that year Dalrymple did a study ofthe industry in New York state and foundthat, typically, CA stores were owned by largeand successful fruit farmers (Dalrymple,1967). The average total CA storage holdingsper farm were large, averaging 31,200 bushelsand ranging from 7500 to 65,000 bushels. Anaverage storage room held some 10,800 bushels.A little over three-quarters of the capacityrepresented new construction while the otherquarter was remodelled from refrigeratedstores. About 68% of the capacity was rentedout to other farmers or speculators. In 2004 itwas reported that some 75% of cold stores inUSA had CA facilities (DGCL, 2004).UKSharples (1989a), in his review in ClassicalPapers in Horticultural Science, stated that‘[Franklin] Kidd and [Cyril] West can bedescribed as the founders of modern CA storage’.Sharples described the background totheir work and how it came about. Dalrymple(1967), in reviewing early work on the effectsof gases on postharvest fruit and vegetablesstated: ‘The real start of CA storage had toawait the later work of two British scientists[Kidd and West], who started from quite adifferent vantage point’.During the First World War concern wasexpressed by the British government aboutfood shortages. It was decided that one of themethods of addressing the problem should bethrough research, and the Food InvestigationOrganisation was formed at Cambridge in1917 under the direction of W.B. Hardy, whowas later to be knighted and awarded the fellowshipof the Royal Society (Sharples, 1989a).In 1918 the work being carried out at Cambridgewas described as:a study of the normal physiology, at lowtemperatures, of those parts of plants whichare used as food. The influence of thesurrounding atmosphere, of its content of O 2,CO 2and water vapour was the obvious pointto begin at, and such work has been taken upby Dr. F. Kidd. The composition of the air infruit stores has been suspected of being ofimportance and this calls for thoroughelucidation. Interesting results in stoppingsprouting of potatoes have been obtained,and a number of data with various fruitsproving the importance of the composition ofthe air.(Anon., 1919)