{"id":430924,"date":"2026-01-22T22:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430924\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T22:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:51:11","slug":"how-cool-rooms-and-cold-storage-work-to-keep-fruit-fresh-year-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430924\/","title":{"rendered":"How cool rooms and cold storage work to keep fruit fresh year-round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians can make apple pies in winter, eat oranges in summer, and even enjoy berries all year round.<\/p>\n

But with the fruit out of season during those times, consumers are unknowingly relying on science, a whole lot of money, and an ancient technique.<\/p>\n

Across Australia, there are several cool rooms or storage units that can keep fruit and vegetables fresh for up to a year at a time.<\/p>\n

This means an apple picked in February 2025 may be what you consume today, in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Tim Riley manages the Orange Fruit Growers Co-Op in New South Wales. (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)<\/p>\n

Tim Riley is the manager of the Orange Fruit Growers Co-Op, and has been there for more than three decades.<\/p>\n

The organisation is owned by a number of growers from around Central West NSW, and utilises a technology called “controlled atmosphere” to keep fruit fresh year-round.<\/p>\n

“The fruit gets picked at its optimum maturity, comes to us \u2026 dipped to stop fungicides, put it into a cool room at around 2 degrees,” Mr Riley said.<\/p>\n

“Then we’ll pull that room down to controlled atmosphere conditions, which is 2 per cent of oxygen and a bit lower CO2 levels, so we virtually put the fruit to sleep.”\"Metal<\/p>\n

The Orange Fruit Growers Co-Op also stores canola seed in cool rooms.\u00a0 (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)<\/p>\n

The fruit will be sealed under these conditions for three months before the room is reopened, with growers pulling out roughly a quarter of the produce, before sealing it back up again for another few months.<\/p>\n

Mr Riley said this was done for six to eight months of the year.<\/p>\n

“When you’re looking at a supermarket that’s got fruit on the shelf every week, it’s only picked in a three-month window,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we do our job right, the fruit looks spot-on until it comes to Christmas, where they nearly all go.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s supply of apples<\/p>\n

A total of 99.7 per cent of all apples stocked in Australian supermarkets come from Australian orchards, according to Apple and Pear Australia.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Griffith is the head of industry at the peak body representing Australian apple and pear growers, and he said being able to provide the fruit year-round was vital from a food security perspective.<\/p>\n

“We’re able to provide fresh, nutritious food throughout the year \u2026 which is great and dramatically reduces food wastage,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, in other countries \u2026 you can lose up to 30 per cent of your fresh fruit and vegetables because you just don’t have the facilities available to ensure you’ve got year-round supply.”<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Tim Riley holds an apple that was picked in March last year.\u00a0 (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)<\/p>\n

‘Still good to eat’<\/p>\n

The nutritional difference between a freshly harvested fruit and a fruit from storage is roughly the same, according to Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development senior research scientist John Golding.<\/p>\n

He said fruits went through their normal ripening processes regardless.<\/p>\n

“The ripening might be slower but that’s the idea of cold storage … it will still go through its same processes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Stored fruit has been described by Dr Golding as an extension of fresh fruit.<\/p>\n

Regardless of its storage, he said it was important for people to continue to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n

“Just nutritionally and for public health, I think it’s really important for people not to be scared if it’s been in the fridge for a little while, it’s still good to eat,” Dr Golding said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

The fruit is stored in cool rooms or controlled atmosphere storage to ensure longevity.\u00a0 (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)<\/p>\n

History of cold storage<\/p>\n

With no technology to power high-tech controlled atmospheres and fridges in Roman times, it was their use of underground limestone that helped keep produce fresh.<\/p>\n

Around the first century BC, the Romans found that storing fruit in cool areas dramatically improved its shelf life.<\/p>\n

Research out of Princeton University’s Department of Classics shows different Mediterranean societies found ways to prolong the shelf-life of their foods by storing it in pots, ceramic vessels and other containers.<\/p>\n

Caroline Cheung, the author of the university’s research project Managing food storage in the Roman Empire, found that Roman technological innovations brought new forms of storage practices.<\/p>\n

“They stored greater amounts of food, protected their quality, and facilitated the nuts and bolts of the food supply system,” Ms Cheung wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Pictures<\/p>\n

Fruit can be put into controlled atmosphere storage to keep it fresh longer. (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)<\/p>\n

“The practice of ‘nesting’ containers within rooms and structures built with climate-control in mind offered varying layers of protection and insulation while also allowing easy access and removal, organised storage, and responses to local environments.”<\/p>\n

It was found temperature reduction slowed respiration rate, senescence, and the death of the fruit.<\/p>\n

But the introduction of electric refrigeration allowed a whole new way to store fresh produce.<\/p>\n

“Meat from Tasmania and NSW sent back to England, and apples from Tasmania back to the UK used refrigeration over 100 years ago,” Dr Golding said.<\/p>\n

“We were sending fruit long distances and long times in storage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians can make apple pies in winter, eat oranges in summer, and even enjoy berries all year round.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17250,64,63,99,130277,225656,225655,14942,225657,225658,225659],"class_list":["post-430924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apples","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-co-op","tag-controlled-atmosphere","tag-cool-room","tag-fruit","tag-is-it-okay-to-eat-fruit-from-cold-storage","tag-keeping-fruit-fresh","tag-long-term-storage-of-fruit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}