Storage

Hazel Technologies Expands Partnership with QFresh Lab

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:50:00 GMT

Hazel Technologies, a company that focuses on extending the shelf-life of fresh produce, said in a news release that it has extended its partnership with QFresh Labs, an independent postharvest physiology lab. The companies say QFresh Labs will provide additional support in postharvest physiology, sustainable packaging resources and lab testing while continuing to support Hazel Technologies’ Breatheway product.

“With this expanded partnership, we seek to penetrate new market segments such as floral, seafood, meats and coffee,” says Parker Booth, CEO for Hazel Technologies. “The Breatheway membrane used in conjunction with specialty packaging companies’ offerings is a key growth opportunity we can capitalize on.”

Hazel Technologies says it has worked with QFresh Lab for nearly two years, with QFresh supporting Hazel Technologies’ sourcing of unique packaging films to augment its Breatheway technology. Qfresh Lab offers postharvest physiology resources, respiration rate (RR) analysis, package design, shelf-life testing, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and more.

“With the unique gas transmission features of Hazel’s Breatheway membrane combined with its temperature modulation properties, we are very excited to add our expertise and see how far we can take this unique postharvest packaging technology,” says Jeffrey Brandenburg, founder of QFresh Lab.

Prep Grain Bin Safety Needs Before Harvest

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:29:02 GMT

In just minutes, shifting and moving grain can take a life. Take steps before you enter a grain bin to ensure you have the proper safety equipment and know how to use it.

Entering grain bins is dangerous, and farm safety experts say grain producers should develop a “zero entry” mentality. “Stay out of the bin,” says Karen Funkenbusch, University of Missouri rural safety and health specialist. “But if you must enter, do not go alone. Grain entrapment is one of the least understood hazards in today’s family farm operations.”

If you do have to enter, use a body harness with an anchored lifeline when entering a grain bin from above. Always have trained observer outside the bin. Review safety instructions with employees each year.

Communities that want to start a grain safety workshop can apply for a grant from the Grain Handling Safety Coalition by Sept. 30, 2017. Click here for program details, as well as handouts and other safety resources.

In rural communities, first responders and local fire departments can be overwhelmed with a grain entrapment situation.

Training and use of grain tubes have increased in recent years, improving rescue efforts.

“It only takes seconds to become entrapped in grain and less than a minute to become completely engulfed,” said Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness. “Once grain is above knee-level, it is nearly impossible to get out without assistance. Until we can convince all farmers and other grain handlers to develop a zero-entry mentality, we will strive to make tubes and rescue training as widely available as possible.”

Nationwide Agribusiness’ annual Nominate Your Fire Department Contest announced 16 winners. These fire departments will receive grain tubes and safety training to help first responders be able to rescue people who may become entrapped in grain. The 2017 winners are:

Dieterich Fire Protection District (Illinois)
Marion Center Volunteer Fire Department (Pennsylvania)
Alexandria Volunteer Fire Company (Pennsylvania)
Elgin-Beaverdam Hose Company (Pennsylvania)
Livonia Fire Department (New York)
Union Fire Company No. 1 (New Jersey)
Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Company (Delaware)
Florence Township Fire Department (Ohio)
Braymer Volunteer Fire Department (Missouri)
Jamestown Rural Fire Protection District (Missouri)
Jasper Fire Protection District (Missouri)
Blanchard Township Gilboa Fire Department (Ohio)
Number One Fire Department (Tennessee)
New Albin Fire Department (Iowa)
Thorp Fire & Ambulance District (Wisconsin)
West Burlington Fire Department (Iowa)

For more information about the program, visit www.grainbinsafetyweek.com or watch this video .

Rescuers Train to Cheat Death on the Farm

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:29:02 GMT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Mark Baker doesn’t mess around when it comes to teaching volunteer firefighters how to rescue someone trapped in a grain bin. Even when it’s a carefully controlled situation.

“Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging. Let’s go!” he shouts to trainees scooping grain from around a volunteer standing inside a mobile silo. “Too much time. Too much time.”

Baker knows that every minute counts when someone is trapped, being slowly crushed by the pressure of corn or soybean kernels. It’s like a drowning, he said, with the victim unable to breathe because of the intense pressure placed on his chest.

“The pounds of grain pressure on their bodies constricts them over and over,” he added.

About 40 volunteer firefighters gathered Saturday on the Lutheran Hospital campus in southwest Fort Wayne for training in grain bin and farm equipment rescues. They represented Woodburn, Avilla, Poe, St. Joseph and other areas in Allen County.

“We’re trying to protect our best resource, which is our farmers,” said Baker, a trainer with Stateline Farm Rescue.

The Orangeville, Illinois, company travels the country, training first responders in rural areas how to rescue farming accident victims.

In 2010, 51 people were trapped in grain storage in bins and 26 of them died, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA describes grain handling as “a high-hazard industry” in which “workers can be exposed to risks such as fires and explosions, suffocation from engulfment and entrapment in grain bins, falls from heights, and crushing/amputation injuries.”

Grain, experts say, can act like quicksand when someone is walking inside a silo to try to move it.

Allen County Farm Bureau Inc. sponsored the all-day training, which included classroom and hands-on sessions. Last year, two people were trapped in grain bins just in the eastern part of Allen County, said Tom Miller, who is vice president of the local farm bureau’s board.

“Thankfully, both people got out alive,” he said. “If the fire department had done the wrong thing, it could have been disastrous.”

Jeb Sheidler, executive director of Lutheran’s trauma services, said the majority of farm-related accidents are preventable. But, when they do happen, rescuers need to know what to do.

Sheidler taught the responders how to control heavy bleeding after a victim has been removed from farm equipment, such as an auger. When a tourniquet isn’t available, a pumped up blood pressure cuff can work in a pinch, he said.

“Farming is a very dangerous occupation,” Sheidler said, adding that people older than 60 and younger than 15 suffer a disproportionately higher number of farming injuries. “We see a lot of kids injured in farm accidents.”

Saturday’s training included how to use tools to cut into grain bins’ sheet metal sides.

Katherine Tsakkos was one of the volunteers who climbed into the grain bin. The pressure on her legs and hips was intense she said afterward.

The outline of individual corn kernels was still visible on her legs half an hour after she was “rescued.”

“Under prolonged conditions, it could cause damage,” she said. “It’s very tight. It really is.”

Sam Sliger, who has volunteered with the St. Joseph Township fire department for more than four years, has never been called out on a farm rescue.

Listening to the trainers, he gained an appreciation for how dangerous farming is. And he gained something else from the training that three others from his squad completed:

Confidence in mounting a grain bin rescue.

The sobering part was learning out to cut into grain bins to lessen some of the pressure. Because rescuers want to provide quick relief, they might need to wield those power tools while dangling dozens of feet in the air if someone is trapped near the top of a 40- or 50-foot silo, Sliger said.

“It’s a gut check,” he added.

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Source: The (Fort Wayne) Journal-Gazette, http://bit.ly/2vBRe2s

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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net

This is an AP-Indiana Exchange story offered by The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette.