• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.210-214
• /
• 2009

This study identified microbial risk factors in agricultural products processing center (APC) through the microbial hazard analysis to introduce good agricultural practices (GAP) system in APCs. Samples were collected from surroundings (basket, tray loader, weighing cup, collector, box) and workers by swabbing (glove and cloth) and glove juice method (hand) to enumerate total bacteria, coliform, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. The levels of total bacterial and coliform populations recovered from surroundings were 2.4-5.7 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ and 2.3-5.7 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ or hand for surroundings, and workers, respectively samples were 2.3-5.7 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ or hand. Escherichia coli populations were determined to be below detection limit. S. aureus and Salmonella populations recovered from surroundings were 3.0-4.4 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ and close to detection limit, respectively. Corresponding bacterial populations to worker's samples were 2.8-5.2 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ or hand (S. aureus) and below detection limit (Salmonella). Bacterial populations of APC certified facilities were similar (p${\geq}$0.05) with those of uncertified facilities. These results showed that this study should be useful in development of GAP models to improve microbial safety in APCs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
• /
• 2001.02a
• /
• pp.264-272
• /
• 2001

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.195-202
• /
• 2010

Cooling air-conditioning of APC (Agricultural Products processing Center) workplace is important to improve the working environment in the summer season. As existing cooling systems for air-conditioning of whole workplace are inefficient because of their high equipment operating costs, relatively inexpensive cooling system is required. The objectives of this study were to simulate the thermal flow fields in APC workplace having the positive and negative pressure type fan and pad systems and spot cooling system by using CFD software (FLUENT, 6.2) and estimate the cooling effectiveness of respective cooling systems. The results showed that the negative pressure type fan and pad system was inappropriate for the present APC workplace because of excessive outside air influx from open gateway and the positive pressure type fan and pad system created relatively low temperature field but non-uniform velocity field at worker positions. The spot cooling system could supply cool air to worker positions with relatively constant air velocity and temperature.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.129-138
• /
• 2023

The proportion of agricultural products handled through the Agricultural Products Processing Center (APC) is also steadily increasing every year, and in the case of Seongju Korean melon, a total of 10 APCs of Nonghyup and farming association corporations are in operation, and the distribution ratio is about 60% based on total production. In this study, Seongju Korean melon was selected as a target to analyze the environment load during carrying (production farm ~ APC) in the production area and the transport environment load during distribution of domestic fruits, and to analyze the environmental load for handling at APC. The vertical average vibration intensity (overall G_rms of 1~250 Hz) of truck transport measured at three transport routes from Seongju Korean melon producer ~ APC, Seongju ~ Seoul and Seongju ~ Jeju was about three times larger than that in the lateral direction and 4.5 times larger than that in the longitudinal direction, respectively. The frequency of occurrence of high-amplitude events (G) in the vertical direction compared to the measuring time was deeply related to pavement conditions in the order of unpaved farm-roads, concretepaved farm-roads, and asphalt-paved main-roads, but overall G_rms for the entire frequency band is believed to have a greater impact on vehicle traveling speed than road conditions. On the other hand, the difference in the size and direction of the vibration intensity measured by the forklift truck's main-body and the attachment (fork carrier) during handling at Seongju Korean melon APC was clear, and the vibration intensity of the forklift truck's main-body was largely affected by the stiffness of the fork and the mast according to the handling weight. Based on the field-data of the transport environment during domestic distribution measured through this study, it is believed that it is possible to develop a lab-based simulation protocol for appropriate packaging design.

• KIISE Transactions on Computing Practices
• /
• v.21 no.11
• /
• pp.689-698
• /
• 2015

Currently, the itemized box loading operation at the Agriculture Products Processing Center which distributes agricultural products for the region is carried out manually. The process of loading agricultural products requires great manpower and had been resolved through the part-time employment of the residents of farm villages. However, recently it has become quite difficult to secure manpower as the aging within the rural community has been intensified. Hence, the necessity for countermeasures such as facility automation or use of robots have become necessary. This study suggests an automatic robot system for the itemized loading of apple boxes at the Agriculture Products Processing Center. The suggested method is to design and develop equipment such as a conveyer, robot, and bar code reader. In addition, a sorting plan, operational control, generation of control information, and software module that could monitor the inside of the Agriculture Products Processing Center is needed. After test-operating and evaluating the developed system, the existing manual work would be replaced with the automated robot system in order to enhance work efficiency and resolve safety issues.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.392-398
• /
• 2009

This study identified risk factors of cross-contamination of foodborne pathogens and established a good agricultural practice (GAP) system for an agricultural products processing center (APC) for perilla leaves. All samples were collected before and after a standard work shift at the APC, while perilla leaves were also collected after each step in the APC. In addition, the workers and their surroundings were sampled by swabbing. The total plate count (TPC) and coliform count in the water samples increased significantly (p<0.05) to 3.36 and 1.73 log CFU/mL after work, respectively. However, no Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes were detected. The bacterial populations of the workers and their surroundings did not differ significantly (p${\geq}$0.05) before and after work. However, Staphylococcus aureus (<1.66 log CFU) was detected at a high rate (13-50%) in the basket, packing table, gloves and cloth. Although perilla leaves passed through the washing steps, the TPC and coliform bacterial populations on the final products were higher (p${\geq}$0.05) than those of unwashed perilla leaves, which indicates that the washing system was not functioning properly. Accordingly, a GAP system with a better washing system should be employed at this facility.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.174-180
• /
• 2013

This study investigated the microbiological contamination of tomato in cultivation and distribution stage. Growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogens examined in tomato extracts (0.1, 1.0, and 10.0%) and incubation temperatures (5, 15, 25, and $35^{\circ}C$). In cultivation stage of tomato, total aerobic bacteria were 7.77 log CFU/g in gloves of APC (Agricultural Products Processing Center) worker and Bacillus cereus were 0.33 log CFU/g at nutrient tank, respectively. And Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., were not detected. After APC stage, total aerobic bacteria were significantly higher compared with before-APC stage. Among of general, pesticide-free and organic produce in tomato were no significant difference in microbial contamination. Coliforms of tomato in small vinyl package were significantly higher when compared to tomato in whole boxes package. There was no significant difference in bacteria count between unwashed tomato and washed tomato using tap water for one minute. The growth of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogens in tomato extracts were decreased significantly as the concentration increased, and the microbial population was reached the lowest point during storage in 10% tomato extracts concentration for 72h at $5^{\circ}C$. However, the population of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogens were gradually increased at 7.33~8.51 and 7.73~8.60 log CFU/ml during storage at $15{\sim}35^{\circ}C$ for 72h, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.170-181
• /
• 2015

Generally, because individual agricultural product possesses its own distinctive characteristics and shows different characteristics at each stage of the agricultural supply chain, it is necessary to develop a proper enterprise architecture for managing information system. In this paper, we propose an enterprise architecture based on RFID/USN technology that can be used as a reference enterprise architecture for u-IT application in the agriculture sectors, which is called the u-Farm enterprise architecture with taking heterogeneous characteristics of agricultural products into account for. In addition, we also developed the RFID/USN middleware platform as a core infrastructure technology. Fo evaluation of the performance of the proposed u-Farm architecture and the RFID/USN middleware platform, the field-trial evaluation at the apple Agricultural Processing Center (APC) has been executed and the results shows that the proposed architecture and platform perform well in terms of information integration over the whole SCM process from the farming stage to delivering statge to the customers. It is expected that the proposed u-Farm enterprise architecture can be utilized as a standard information architecture, and the RFID/USN middleware platform can be a infrastructure platform for future u-IT based information technology applications and services in the agricultural environment.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 2011

Opening agricultural market expansion, reduced purchases through wholesale markets, expanding the influence large retailers of consumer's market such as changes in the distribution system to the farmer's market conditions are changing rapidly. Because of this, retailers of the scaled and chain-store operations was centered on distribution environmental changes of the consumer market place. In producing area due to changes in market conditions in the agricultural production of in producing area distribution organization and the size distribution can not be put off no longer challenge is imminent. If it do not raise forces banded together, the producer is bound to remain as the weak. To support the distribution of this production was introduced in 2000 enable the Activation Project of in producing area distribution. Recent in producing area Changes of Agricultural conditions in order to cope with the Small-scale farmers and small individual farmers are becoming Scaled and specialized. Also, is specific to each item and regional is showing aspects. Government support for Activation Project of in producing area distribution is greatly improved, but in terms of competitiveness on the market still is showing the limitations. The most common of these problems, the market response if in producing area producer's organization and scale of the problem. Equipped for the purpose of consumer market place responsiveness unreasonable propelled outward from the Painter-sized weakens the organizational power. also, Difficult to succeed organizational size is a dissolution or anything within a few years, farmers around the best producer organizations, such as deviation occurs is exposed to a variety of issues. In this study, previous studies refer to the recent changes in agricultural retail environment, background and needs of organization·scaled, Determine the status of the domestic in producing area organizations and derived Problems, look into Domestic and overseas of in producing area organization with best practices for enhancing the competitiveness of the proposed improvement are intended to. In the future, in producing area distribution policy would like to provide direction to the development. The results of the study showed the follwing : 1) enhance utilization and orrganized through the diversification of the agricultural Collection systems. 2) Scaled to achieve through Items of specialized a wide area marketing. 3) Management operating units, such as installation and operating that overseas the best practices " Comite Economique Agricole Regional 'Fruits et Legumes' de Bretagne". 4) To establish a support system that in producing area distribution organization model development for appropriate domestic. In particular, in case of domestic in producing area distribution organization, through the analysis of various case study that a successful organization and scaled. The process of the various challenges arising in organizational scaled and generalization, and by the way he goes about trying to overcome is required. At the end of the study's limitations and future research directions suggested.