Abstract:
The reduction of poverty and hunger stands as a paramount concern for the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Pakistan’s current population has been
recorded to be 212 million while the prediction shows an expected growth of 250
million in 2030.Developing countries like Pakistan also face substantial post-harvest
losses due to inadequate storage systems, within a range of 35% to 40% which puts a
needs for sustainable food supply system. This global issue not only suppresses the
economy but also puts a pressure on the availability of food for the population. To cater
such issues a special controlled atmospheric system has been designed, integrated with a
sensor by Ministry of agriculture and forestry, Türkiye. The sensor monitors the daily
amount of oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, relative humidity, pressure and the data
is available on a mobile application named FreshSens.This data helps in monitoring the
internal environment of the controlled atmospheric boxes, enabling the user to determine
optimal storage duration of various commodities.
Research has been carried out on golden delicious apples and vogue potatoes for a time
period of 5 months stored in this specially designed CAB. Four such CAB have been
employed for this research by allocating two CAB for each apples and potatoes with
distinct membrane openings to regulate the inner environment. The membranes help to
control the inner environment of the storage box. Physiochemical analysis revealed that
the traditional time period of storage of golden delicious of 90 days exceeded in our
system to 150 days. Likewise the storage duration of vogue potatoes, typically ranging
in 2-4 months extended to a duration of five months without any effects on nutritional
properties and the overall texture and firmness. Furthermore comparative data from
physicochemical analysis helped to finalize the optimal storage condition for each stored
commodity. The study concludes that the CAB with minimum membrane openings
provides a long term storage as it minimizes weight loss.
