Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance has become a legal requirement for all food manufacturers, processors, handlers and distributors. The changes to the legislation in the last few years have paved the way for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to become an integral part of the refrigeration industry for the collection, assimilation and reporting of data right across the cold chain.
Adroit Technologies is a local technology leader in the development of SCADA technology, which is being used to increase the quality of fresh produce, and to ensure it complies with the international HACCP requirements. The powerful Adroit SCADA is a favourite because of its excellent local support and its value for money pricing.
Ceres Fruit Growers Ltd has implemented an Adroit SCADA System across its controlled atmosphere (CA) environments and is planning to do the regular atmosphere normally aspirated (RA) environments in the near future.
System integrator for the project, Willie Cameron of Software Services, says: "The fact that fruit can be stored for as long as six to 10 months at temperatures at minus 0.5 degree centigrade before being shipped, obviously adds significantly to the importance of real-time monitoring to reduce risk."
The Ceres storage facilities are characterised by location groupings. Each of the three groups has three to four complexes. Each complex has a further six to eight rooms containing up to 2 000 bins (approximately 400kg per bin) of fruit.
The total project was divided into smaller projects that covered a group of complexes at a time.
Each CA room has around five Resistance Temperature Devices (RTD), three of which measure air temperature and two of which are actually inserted into the fruit.
These probes are then connected to a slave panel for each room. The slave panels are then connected to a processor which controls the complex and the various complexes are connected via TCPIP Ethernet cables to the Adroit Server station.
In addition to temperature monitoring, the Adroit SCADA system also controls the scrubbers and blowers which use gas analysers to evaluate the mixture of gases within the CA environment where oxygen and carbon dioxide must be maintained at specific levels.
The control system then corrects the atmospheric condition by either scrubbing the air to remove carbon dioxide or by blowing in oxygen rich air to increase oxygen levels.
The reporting from the SCADA system is customised to provide the required detail for each specific cultivar as required by the SA Apple & Pear Producers` Association.
The Adroit SCADA system has assisted Ceres Fruit Growers and other clients to optimally manage their cold storage facilities to maintain the quality of their produce, and in doing so, to increase the export value of the produce.
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