No Stranger To The Cold Room

As I look back on this year I realize just how much time I spend talking about cold rooms and refrigeration systems. I talk about them in the office, on the phone, in emails, on Skype and even when I'm travelling. To be honest I cannot think of many days this year when the subject of cold storage has not featured in my life!

This was brought home to me when I looked at photographs I've taken over the last 12 months. My cold room travels have taken me from good old Dunstable to Europe (Belgium, Italy, Spain, Bavaria), the Caribbean (Curacao), the Far East (Hong Kong) and even to New Zealand.

In Belgium the subject was cold room panels, doors and shelving. In Italy I met with olive oil producers keen to talk about temperature controlled storage for their olive oil. In Spain and Bavaria it was refrigeration systems discussions involving our good friends at Intarcon. In the Caribbean it was because of my involvement in 2 projects: construction of a test chamber for a pharmaceutical company and the supply of modular panels and other equipment for a new modular housing development on the island of Curacao. So the list goes on.

Today I'm going to share with you a few of the photos from those travels. Once you've seen them I hope you will agree that there's nothing at all dull or unexciting about being a cold room storage expert :)

Controlled environment project in the Caribbean

Downtown Hong Kong

Cute sleepy seal in New Zealand

Old olive tree in Italy

When A Cold Room Means Something Else!

It's the middle of winter, the room or office you are sitting in may be on the cold side (unless you are in Australia!) and all you want to think about is getting warm. I know the feeling ... here is a photo taken on a recent business trip to see a supplier and my 'room' in the car was freezing!

When it comes to my field of work, however, if the 'room' is not cold enough then I'm not doing my job right. How come? Let me explain. Cold rooms are hugely important pieces of modern technology; without them the large scale food processing, preservation, transportation and storage facilities that supply the bulk of our everyday dietary requirements would not be able to operate. Imagine going to Aldi and not being able to find any refrigerated food to take back home and stock up the fridge and freezer. From cheese to meat and much more, commercial cold rooms make it possible for those supermarket shelves to be filled.

The proper installation and efficient operation of cold rooms is therefore paramount for the food processing industry and I have been privileged to play a part in that for many years. I have been involved in the design, supply and installation of cold rooms for companies like Unilever and Kraft so know first-hand the requirements that have to be fulfilled in order to supply the right equipment.

Of course it's not just food that needs modular cold room storage. There are many other things such as pharmaceuticals, automotive and plastics. Then there is the exhibition sector including museums. It's a big list and one I hope to share an insight into with you via this blog.

For now though, if you want to learn more about the background to chilled food (and hence the need for cold rooms) you can read this page.

If that doesn't appeal and you want instead to steer away from the cold, just turn the heating up OR if that's not easy to do (maybe you're a student and we all know heating doesn't come cheap!) then this Wikihow page might be of interest.