A revolutionary store-warming system was introduced on a wider scale last month.

The system, named WarmStor, has been piloted by Lincolnshire firm Manor Fresh for a year and was showcased to the trade at British Potato 2009.

The refurbished warming store at Manor Fresh was fitted with a series of independently ventilated bays, each with its own inverter-driven fan. This is controlled on the basis of the crop temperature loaded onto the bay, determined by a single probe put into the crop by the forklift truck driver when the crop first comes into the warming store.

The fan speed is adjusted to suck a variable amount of air through the boxes from the store, which is maintained at a fixed 10.5°C using recovered heat from the adjoining coldstore equipment.

The WarmStor system has so far seen more than 26,000 tonnes passs through it.

Jonathan Wheeler of WarmStor told FPJ: “This has real benefits in terms of the cost of storing potatoes and vegetables, as well as in ensuring the optimum quality of these products as they are warmed prior to processing.”

Shane Tyler, head of operations at Manor fresh, said: “It has been revolutionary. Warming of most crops is achieved within two to four days at a fraction of the energy incurred previously for the job - and the computer-control system provides paperless records to give us full traceability of crop temperature.”

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