By Eamonn Ryan
The modern cold chain already lives and breathes controlled atmosphere (CA).
© Cold Link Africa
For decades, this has been the quiet workhorse behind long‑term storage of apples, pears and other fresh produce. At a recent cold chain event, Andrew Brink of Gas At Site invited delegates to look at this familiar technology with fresh eyes – not just as a way to keep fruit firm, but as a way to keep fires from ever starting in the first place.
Gas At Site is deeply embedded in the food‑storage landscape, with more than 1 400 cold stores across South Africa using its technology. These stores rely on carefully managed low oxygen and controlled CO₂ levels to slow down the metabolic processes that cause fruit to age and spoil. As Brink reminded the audience, under the right temperature and gas conditions, apples can be stored for up to 12 months and still emerge “as good as gold”.
The core principle is straightforward: by precisely managing the composition of air in a room, you change how both biological and chemical processes behave. In CA fruit stores, this is used to slow respiration. But fundamentally, the same lever – oxygen concentration – is central to combustion. If you can engineer an atmosphere to slow ripening, you can also engineer it to deny fire the oxygen it needs to start.
Brink captured this idea in a simple question that resonated strongly with the audience: “What if fire never gets its first breath?”
This is the bridge from traditional CA to a new class of fire strategy known as hypoxic fire prevention. Rather than waiting for flames and then responding with water, mist or gas, hypoxic systems use controlled atmosphere principles to make ignition impossible.
In Part 2, we explore how this shift plays out in practice: the role of the fire triangle, why 15% oxygen is a critical threshold, and how workers can still operate safely in these environments.