Controlled atmosphere

[5][6] The long-term storage of vegetables and fruit involves inhibiting the ripening and ageing processes, thus retaining flavor and quality.

Under controlled atmosphere conditions the quality and the freshness of fruit and vegetables are retained, and many products can be stored for 2 to 4 times longer than usual.

[7] Franklin Kidd and Cyril West of Cambridge University did the basic research into fruit respiration and ripening leading to the first commercial facility in 1929.

In his laboratory in a barn near the university, he made different experiments by placing apples in sealed rooms at different temperatures and with various mixtures of oxygen and carbon dioxide to see how the fruit would respond.

As a result of Smock's work, the first CA rooms in the U.S. were built in New York in the 1950s, causing the apple consumption season to extend to springtime nationwide.