Development of Air Blast Freezer for the Storage of Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

The need for the conservation of agricultural produce is highly essential considering the global food crisis. Several methodsof fruit and vegetable preservation do not normally conserve the nutritional values of the produce. This led to the development ofthe Air blast freezer which gives room for the conservation of nutritional and organoleptic values of compatible fruits and vegetables. The system was designed for a cooling capacity of 0.83116KW based on the average ambient temperature of 270C, condensing and evaporating temperatures of 400C and -20C respectively. The system can handle 20 fresh fruits and vegetables or a combination of both. The system, when tested has a coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.55. It is capable of preserving fruit and vegetable samples for 14 days without significant change in the number of nutritional values and the organoleptic condition of thesamples.