Onion Cold Storage Room

Having been cultivated for 5 thousand years, onion has been crowned our salads and meals along with its countless health benefits and strong aroma.

A traditional method of storing onions is drying them with their stalks on and storing in a cool cellar, cave or a dark storage after they are harvested until they are consumed. However, between 40-80% of the onions stored with this method result in spoilage. At the moment, neither economy nor our aged planet can afford these kinds of spoilage anymore.

Onions cannot be stored immediately in cold storage after the harvest. First, onions need to be dried for a few days. Then starts the maturing stage that enables skin and colour formation specific to the onion cultivar. Onions are prepared for cold storage by lowering the temperature at maximum by 0.5 °C per day to reach the ideal cold storage temperature little by little. Depending on the onion variety, they are stored at between 0 °C and +2 °C in cold storage. Onions can be stored in cold storage up to ten months without deterioration. Ventilation is vital in onion storage. After storing, onions are not transported straight from the cold storage before they are put on the market, but heated in temperature-controlled conditions in order to prevent condensation.

It’s a little difficult and complicated process, but worth it. However, only 20 million tonnes of global onion production of 100 million tonnes are stored with modern storage methods and spoilage still continues.