Pendred Fresh Produce and Food Storage Research and Development.
In December 2012 we completed the preparation of a new facility, which includes 2 ten cubic metre cold stores, a 2.5m refrigerated produce counter (Marks and Spencers current specification) and a 1.5 x 3m ambient produce/wet fish counter. In addition to these retail and storage facilities we have also incorporated a sophisticated water filtration system, food preparation area and all of the equipment necessary to enable us to monitor air temperature, humidity, fog density, core temperature and weight loss/gain.
The department is running continuous produce trials as it become seasonally available. Strategic partnerships with major growers, packers and shippers is enabling us to provide data in a way not previously possible.
Our two side-by-side cold rooms are equipped with variable speed fans enabling us to adjust the air speed from half a metre per second up to 10 metres per second. We can adjust air temperature and raise or lower the humidity with the installation of both humidification and de-humidification systems.
Both rooms are equipped with our unique Tru-fog crop hydration system and we are in the process of finalizing the development of a laser fog density monitor and controller. With these control facilities, we are able to create the conditions in a variety of different types of commercial cold storage rooms, chiller rooms, blast chiller rooms, truck trailers and sea containers. With produce, fresh off the field, we are able to remove field heat, then hydrate the product to full turgidity and maintain that hydration within the cell structure of living fresh produce to determine the effect of various life support regimes. Working with food laboratories, we can also evaluate micro biological, organalyptic, vitamin and sugar content.
This Pendred R&D test facility is designed to be the link between scientific laboratories, growers, packers and shippers in this country and overseas. We are constantly working with our technology strategy board research programmes and universities such as University of West of England. The data that we are producing will enable us to evaluate exactly what is possible and repeat tests over and over again in finely controlled conditions.
A new feature that we have developed is timelapse photography. We can record videos of produce on test in our cold stores or retail counters, enabling us to monitor a few days or a few months of side by side comparison of the same produce picked from the same field on the same day, recorded the same way, and then treated with different types of storage or retail environments.
Our in-house research team is headed by Christopher Pendred, the Managing Director and Chairman of Pendred Humidification & Water Systems, together with Julia Pendred Phd, with support from a laboratory assistant.
Christopher has over 30 years experience within the company and over 20 years knowledge working with fresh produce, meat and fish on both retail display in major supermarkets and in post harvest and meat maturation.
Christopher was responsible for introducing moisture maintenance systems into the UK, having been developed twenty five years ago in the USA. He is a personal friend and colleague of Jim Armott, who was the original inventor of the timed misting and air spray humidification systems, commonly seen for many years in supermarket produce departments in the USA. After a 15 year break, Jim Armott has come back to the moisture maintenance business with Pendred’s experience – Christopher having developed the Tru-fog crop hydration system.
Pendred also specialize in water filtration, purification and formulation.
With ten years experience working with Starbucks UK, Pendred’s service and maintain water filtration and formulation systems in over 90% of their UK stores. Pendreds also have a strategic partnership with Nimbus Water Systems in California USA
