Case Studies

London Fruit, Inc. is a full service cold storage and packinghouse located in Pharr Texas. The fifty person staff in this five cooler facility, grades sizes and re-packs avocados and limes imported from Mexico. Primus Labs most recent audit rated them at 99% on a scale of 100 for food safety. They report that by using Airocide® they have achieved total airborne bacterial elimination and 95% reduction in mold.

Bland Distribution Services (BDS) opened its 110,000-square-foot facility in November 2008 in the Rio Grande Valley community of Donna, Texas. It offers fully customizable cold storage, logistics, packaging, and warehousing services. The company is committed to providing superior service and food safety assurance by its participation in the industry respected Primus GFS food safety program. BDS exceeds the basic food safety requirements of the FDA for excellence in food safety.

In business from the late 1960’s, Nicho Produce has grown to serve national chains with a wide variety of fresh produce as well as it’s fresh cut operations handling all types of product from Avocados to Zucchini and everything in between. Nicho added Airocide® bioconversion technology into its format specifically to reduce shrink and achieved close to a fifty percent reduction in shrink along with a 10-day increase in shelf life.

Spores that pass through the box aren't filtered, they're fried," says John Hayman, Chief Science Officer for Akida Holdings, the manufacture and marketer of Airocide® bioconversion technology. "That's appealing," he notes, "for people who don't want to change an Anthrax-laden air filter."

A total of 60,865 spores entered the reactor and of this inoculum, a total of 5 CFUs exited the devide and were collected on the surface of the seven sets of blood agar plates over the 70-min sampling period. After each 10-min sampling period culture plates were covered and labeled. A total of 14 culture plates were incubated overnight at 35 degrees Celsius. The CFUs of B. thuringiensis were counted and recorded for each culture plate.

Trade/Device Name: Airocide TiO2, Regulation Number: 880.6500, Regulatory Class : II, Product Code: FRA, Dated November 18, 2003.

Airocide® bioconversion technology was tested in a 1m³ dynamic environmental chamber following the guidelines of ASTM D 5116 (1). Ozone monitoring was conducted with a Thermo Environmental Model 49 Ozone Analyzer. This analyzer operates based on the strong UV absorbance of ozone at 254 nm. The chamber was continuously monitored for ozone over a five hour period. Ozone, if any, was below the minimum quantifiable level of 10 μg/m³ (5 ppb (parts per billion).

Tests were conducted in August of 2002 with analyses conducted in August and September. The effluent from the Airocide® bioconversion technology device was sampled and analyzed to determine gas species and concentrations. Ozone was found to be below detectable levels and the volitile organic compounds were found to be very low in the ppb (parts ber billion range).

Whole cells deposited on a titanium dioxide-coated surface have been oxidized in air to carbon dioxide via photocatalysis. This paper provides the first evidence that the organic matter in whole cells can be completely oxidized.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in a 28,500 ft3 tomato ripening room/cooler at a major tomato repacking facility in Riverview, FL to measure the reduction in airborne mold and airborne bacteria. The system reduced the amount of airborne mold in the cooler by an average of 90.5% after a 72-hour period. Airborne bacteria were found to be present at sufficiently low levels to be considered insignificant.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in a refrigerated cooler inside a warehouse of a large organic produce wholesaler located in Holland, to determine if the technology would reduce the amount of airborne mold present. The three (3) ACS-50 systems utilized for the study reduced the amount of airborne fungi inside the cooler by an average of 96.8%in 72 hours.

A study was conducted in Balsapintada, Murcia (Spain) utilizing the device, in two different cold rooms filled with peppers and melons respectively. The Airocide® bioconversion system has proven to efficiently remove ethylene (by 58.1%), CFUs and VOCs concentrations in cold storage indoor air as well as that it is applicable to different stored produce.

A test was performed to determine if Airocide® bioconversion technology could reduce the presence of airborne mold in a 42,000 ft3 refrigerated warehouse containing oranges. Air samples taken seven (7) days after operating the system showed an 80% decrease in all airborne mold spores from air samples taken before the system was turned on. There was no evidence of blue or green mold spores in the second round of air samples, which represents a 100% reduction of these harmful molds.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 19,500 ft3 tomato cooler of a regional produce wholesale company in Alberta, Canada. The study was conducted during three days of normal business activity. The results show airborne mold reduction inside the cooler of 54% in 24 hours and 62% in 48 hours. Airborne bacteria in the same cooler decreased 75% in 24 hours and 100% in 48 hours.

A clinical study of the Airocide® PPT air purifying system was conducted in the 1,300 ft3 refrigerated walk-in cooler of Return to Eden, an independent organic grocery store in Atlanta, GA. The results show an average airborne mold reduction inside the coolers of 89% in 48 hours, and an airborne bacteria reduction of 67% in the same time frame.

The presence of harmful elements that affect stored fresh produce inside cold rooms is a well known problem to the industry. Within these harmful elements, the organic volatile compounds (named VOCs from now on) represent one of the biggest worries. VOCs existence is a consequence of the stored produce own metabolism, and mold spreads through the air in a spore form; and also the ethylene, that although we can include it within the VOCs group. This study, presents the results obtained after a few tests conducted in the SAT 9821, CFM group in Balsapintada, Murcia (Spain) utilizing the Airocide® bioconversion system, in two different cold rooms filled with peppers and melons respectively.

A study was conducted by Esmeralda Farms researchers in their 96 m3 (approx. 3,400 ft3) In Vitro Propagation laboratory to measure the effect of using the Airocide® bioconversion system to kill airborne fungi and bacteria. The system reduced the amount of airborne fungi by 100% and reduced the amount of airborne bacteria by an average of 98% over the 8-week test period.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 148,500 ft3 pre-cooler of Esmeralda Farms, an international floral importer in Miami, FL. The results show a significant reduction in airborne pathogens in 24 hours. There was an average airborne mold reduction of 95.45% after a 72-hour period and an average airborne bacteria reduction of 73.18% in the same time frame.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 94,600 ft3 floral coolers of Equiflor Corporation, a leading floral growing, distributing and marketing company in Miami, FL. The data supports the hypothesis that airborne mold levels would be lowered after 48 hours of continuous operation of the system. The results show an average airborne mold reduction inside the coolers of 78.5% in 48 hours.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the floral cooler and storage facility of Arteflor, a major cut flower wholesaler in Madrid, Spain. The results after 11 days of continuous operation show an average airborne reduction of 99.99% inside the storage area and 100% inside the cooler.

A clinical study of Airocide PPT was conducted in the floral cooler and storage facility of Coflores, a major cut flower wholesaler in Madrid, Spain. The results after six (6) days of continuous operation show an average airborne reduction of 96.01% inside the cooler.

Julio Ramirez sees proof that Airocide® bioconversion technology enables reductions in losses to evaporation in combination with humidification while eliminating mold from the equation.

Brad Warner, VP Operations and Winemaker for Sawyer Cellars describes how Airocide® bioconversion technology enables the winery to maintain a chemical free, totally natural environment.

Alan Viader, talks about labor costs before and after installing AAirocide® bioconversion technology and how Airocide® bioconversion technology enabled him to achieve a four day pre-soak without fermentation.

Keith Emerson, director of winemaking for Vineyard 29 talks about Airocide® bioconversion technology’s role in maintaining the perfect atmosphere.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 65,000 ft3 wine barrel storage cave of Hartwell Vineyards, a boutique winery in the Stag's Leap district of Napa, CA. The results show an average airborne mold reduction inside the cave of 72.3% in 23 days.

A clinical study of the Airocide® bioconversion system was conducted in the 130,000 ft3 wine barrel storage room of Chateau St. Jean. Founded in 1973 and now owned by Foster's Group, Chateau St. Jean is a wine making estate located at the foot of Sugarloaf Ridge in the Sonoma Valley near Kenwood, California. The data supports the hypothesis that airborne mold levels would be lowered after 21 days of continuous operation of the system. The results show an average airborne mold reduction inside the storage room of 57% in 23 days.

Surrey diagnostics are leading experts in the monitoring and elimination of allergens, micro-organisms and volatile organic compounds. Previous work performed both in the USA and Spain demonstrated that Airocide® bioconversion systems are effective in the removal of 2,4,6-tricloroanisole (TCA) from the atmosphere. Report 2008002945 clearly demonstrated that the Airocide® bioconversion equipment was able to dramatically reduce the levels of airborne TCA.

A bench top PCO reactor with operating conditions similar to that commercialized by KesAir (US DISTRIBUTOR) was tested for the ability of it to remove TCA gas from a feed stream containing an initial concentration (79 – 286 ppb) of TCA (in a balance of ultra-pure air). From these data, the PCO materials within the Generation 1 Airocide® bioconversion system is capable of removing up to 50% of TCA in a single pass through the reaction chamber.