What are the Differences between Controlled Atmosphere Cold Storage Technology and Traditional Cold Storage Technology?

The reason why controlled - atmosphere cold storage technology is ahead of traditional cold storage technology lies in the key difference of whether it can achieve “fresh - keeping” in the true sense. Compared with traditional refrigerated and frozen fresh - keeping methods, controlled - atmosphere fresh - keeping represents a substitute innovation in the fresh - keeping industry.

Traditional refrigerated and frozen fresh - keeping involves reducing the temperature below the freezing point to achieve a fresh - keeping effect by inhibiting the activities of microorganisms. When consuming frozen food, it needs to be thawed first. As a result, it greatly damages the freshness, quality, taste, and nutrition of the stored items.

Especially when the stored items are removed from the refrigerated or frozen environment, the ripening and spoilage process will accelerate, and they must be consumed as soon as possible. This is because the volume of ice is larger than that of water. When the water contained in cells freezes at low temperatures, it will damage and kill the cell membranes.

After melting by heat, the cells no longer possess the characteristics of life, so there is a huge difference compared to fresh - keeping in the living state.

Controlled - atmosphere fresh - keeping involves artificially controlling the proportion of components such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene in the gas, as well as humidity, temperature (above the freezing critical point), and air pressure. By suppressing the respiration rate of the cells of the stored items, it delays their metabolic processes, keeping them in a near - dormant state rather than a state of cell death. Thus, it can maintain the texture, color, taste, nutrition, etc. of the stored items basically unchanged for a relatively long time, achieving a long - term fresh - keeping effect. Even when the fresh - kept stored items are removed from the controlled - atmosphere fresh - keeping environment, the life activities of their cells will still maintain the normal metabolic rate in the natural environment and will not ripen and spoil quickly.