Cold Storage & Preservation at A.Tosh & Sons

Throughout its 123-year-old history, A. Tosh has had the distinction of being one of the rare few companies that have had zero customer complaints and one of the highest customer retention rates. Continuous innovation and investment in infrastructure development, adoption of new technology, and ongoing personnel training have been instrumental for us in attaining the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Across the food industry, all food handling and processing companies have always placed great emphasis on food safety and food hygiene. Contamination in the food items can have a cascading effect, resulting in food poisoning and other food-borne illnesses which may, in turn, cause irreparable damage to the business, hampering its goodwill.

Food preservation and storage are paramount to food handling and security. A cold storage unit helps in prolonging the shelf life of the products by storing the food safely, and preventing them from organic decay and untoward damage.

For specialty products like flavoured teas, dessert teas, teas with infusions and fruit pieces, it is best to have a cold storage to avoid any infestation, mold formation, or any other contamination that might affect the product’s quality. Having such a unit is ideal to store these goods away from sunlight and preferably in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment.

At A. Tosh, we put together the client’s selection of herbs, teas, fruits, and spices in order to help them create the perfect catalogue for their tea brand.

To meet the requirements of specialty/herbal/infusions teas, we import and store the finest ingredients from across the globe, based on the sourcing parameters set by our clients.

Quality, in this case, remains paramount. While cheaper alternatives may be available locally, we choose to work with supply partners who provide us with ingredients such herbs, tisanes, flavours, etc., from their actual place of origin. And, not just the origin, but consistent quality supply around-the-year, both in terms of appearance and aroma profile, is equally important.

Sourcing from the best suppliers remains the primary way of ensuring the best quality. Herbs, flowers, fruit pieces are highly prone to infestation. As such, partnering with the best and reliable suppliers, we ensure that these ingredients go through a stringent phase of processing before they are packed and sent to us. Thereafter, the storage of these ingredients becomes equally critical.

Pests proliferate in conducive conditions, e.g., moisture promotes mold formation and growth. To avoid any infestation, mold formation, or any other untoward contamination or damage, it is ideal to store the ingredients in their original packing, away from sunlight, and preferably in a temperature-controlled environment. The storage must also keep the relative humidity in check.

Our customised cold storage room helps us regulate the temperature between 12 and 15 degrees at all times. This temperature range ensures that pests cannot survive in these conditions. However, a lower temperature runs the risk of freezing the products over time, which eventually will likely change the characteristics of the blends. Not just temperature regulation, the cold storage is also designed to maintain relative humidity between 50% and 60%. This way, the ingredients are stored safely, with complete avoidance of issues such as infestations, mold formation, etc.

As mentioned above, maintaining the storage temperature in a low teens range helps avoid incidence of insect infestation. Cooling below a certain temperature that the pests might withstand, the cold storage unit prevents their growth and refrains from providing them with a conducive environment to breed or carry on their life cycle.

Many insects adapt to survive cold temperatures aided by the following favourable factors:

As mentioned above, certain fruits and tea products are hygroscopic or have inherent moisture-retaining properties. These, if kept in a freezer, turn into solid blocks of ice, being completely frozen. Such a phenomenon is unfavourable for teas and herbs. It leads to the deterioration of the product quality and directly affects the flavour.

In order to keep the quality intact, these ingredients need to be stored in an ideal temperature, one that is above sub-zero but below 15°C so as to completely avoid any possibility of insect infestation.

Insulated Structures
The ceiling, walls, and floor of a cold storage room are insulated to help regulate the temperature and humidity. Not just a temperature-controlled environment, these structures are designed to minimise exposure to harsh sunlight.

Ensuring ideal temperature
In temperature-controlled rooms, blinds or such implement is used to block the incoming sunlight and an air-conditioner is installed to provide cooling. But, these air-conditioners are hardly capable of maintaining the ideal temperature required as most of them can only bring down temperatures up to 18 degrees consistently.

On the other hand, a cold storage matches the ideal temperature requirements that is unique to each item.

No Cooling Loss
The moment an air-conditioner is turned off in a temperature-controlled room, the structure starts heating up to the ambient temperature and this heat transmission increases the load on the HVAC system to cool the environment of the room, resulting in energy wastage. Not to mention the leakage of cool air every time the doors of such a room is opened. Having an in-built insulation helps ensure no cooling loss takes place.

In addition to ensuring standardised and innovative infrastructure for keeping tea and tea products safe, hygienic and intact, we believe in providing proper training of all the personnel involved in the food handling processes. It is imperative that they are sensitised in the importance of food safety and hygiene and that it is absolutely necessary to follow all food safety guidelines in totality.

To read and know more about our Food Safety & Hygiene practices, read the blog: Uncompromised Food Safety and Hygiene at A.Tosh & Sons