Accessory for urban bicycles to transport fresh products after grocery shopping Politecnico di Milano
Scuola del Design
CoLM Design & Engineering A.A. 2012/2013
Elaborato di Tesi
Laureando: Pedro Antonio Rodriguez Vargas 797737 Relatore: Silvia Ferraris
Abstract
The thesis is addressed to contribute on the increase use of bicycles in the cities, developing a product that allows per-forming more comfortably the activity of grocery joining two important social trends: the use of bikes in town and the shopping of fresh products from grocery stores near home.
The main aim of the project is to im-prove the process of shopping using the bicycle as transport, trying to make easier the shopping of food products that for some citizen’s results uncomfort-able and impossible to perform using a two-wheel vehicle. Thus, the research is aimed to study the use of the bicycle as mean of transport in the city, the exist-ing accessories to transport food as well
as the carried out activities, making use of various studies and surveys, allowing to obtain real information to carry out a brief project linked directly to the users necessities.
Finally the brief is defined, where the ob-jective is to use the bicycle for going gro-cery, developing a bag that can be used as a rolling basket thanks to the use of wheels and a telescopic handle, which will be used as a rack structure to install and uninstall the entire system to the bi-cycle frame according to the user needs. Allowing a distribution and internal divi-sion of food product’s space, to ensure its physical protection and avoid the contact between them, keeping also the
approximate temperature at which food products are kept at the supermarket, where temperature controls are still held to avoid breaking the cold chain process. The design process includes the fabrica-tion of prototypes as well as the study of different bicycle types in order to create an easy and fast solution of installation and removal, adaptable to several bicy-cles according to standard dimensions and existing solutions.
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Table of contents
First Part
0 - Introduction 10-11
1.0 - Transport and food issues 12
1.1 - Definition of Preservation 12
1.2 - Food characteristcs and composition 16
2.0 - Intrinsic factors affecting microbial growth 18
2.1 - pH (power of hydrogen) 18
2.2 - Protective atmospheres 20
2.3 - Water Activity 22
2.4 - Food Nutrients 26
2.5 - Minerals 27
2.6 - Vitamins 30
2.7 - Carbohydrates 32
2.8 - Fats and lipids 33
3.0 Microorganisms 34
3.1 - Food contamination 35
3.2 - Microbial growth 36
3.3 - Factos affecting the rate growth of microorganisms 37
3.4 - Temperature and rate growth 38
4.0 Cold chain for food conservation 40
4.1 - Definition 40
4.2 - Phases 42
4.3 - Types of Chains 44
4.4 - Storage conditions and duration for fruits and vegetables 45
5.0 Car vs Bicycles
5.1 - City bike context 50
5.2 - Car sales 51
5.3 - Car disadvantages 52-53
5.4 - CO2 consumption 54
5.5 - Bicycle sales and production in Italy 56
5.6 - Bicycle benefits 58
5.7 - City uses 60
5.8 - City bicycle activities 62
5.9 - FIAB - National Survey 2011 62-66
5.9.1 - Average number of uses per month 67
6.0 - Market 68-75
6.1 - Woman “city bicycles” 68-69
6.2 - Men “city bicycles” 70-71
6.3 - Mountain bikes 72-73
6.4 - Fixie bikes 74-75
7.0 Bike and Grocery 76
7.1 - Bicycle and grocery survey 80-86
7.1.1. - Survey questions 81-86
7.1.2 - Survey results 86
8.0 Bicycle components 87
8.1 Bicycle support points for installing rear racks 88
9.0 Bicycle racks 90
9.1 - Characteristics 90-91
9.2 - Dimensions 93
9.3 - Materials 98-100
10 Thermal insulation bags 101
10.1 - Characteristics 101
10.2 - Dimensions 102-103
10.3 - Materials 102-103
11 Grocery shopping 104-105
11.1 - Types of grocery 104
11.2 - Bicycles baskets 106-109
11.2.1 - Volumes 108-109
11.2.2 - Dimensions 108-109
12. Brief Definition 110-113
Second Part
13. The concept 116-119
13.1 - Mechanism Idea 118
13.2 - Prototypes 120-125
14. The project 126
14.1 - General description 126
14.2 - Functioning 126
15 The Bag 130-147
15.1 - Description 130
15.2 - The base 134-136
15.2.1. Base Engineering 134-135
15.3 - Interior components and materials 136-147
16 The Rack 148-149
16.1 - Description 148-149
16.2 - Components 151
16.3 - Manufacturing 152-155
16.4 Handle 156-159
16.4.1 Hanlde engineering 158-159
16.5 Mechanism and components 160-165
17. Sequence of Use 168-175
18. List of figures 176-179
19 References 180-185
First Part
1
Introduction
Is not a secret that world cities and hu-man being behaviors have been chang-ing accordchang-ing to climate conditions and population density.
From the first aspect, new technologies and new markets have been working on trying to reduce the levels of contamina-tion that are already out of control, and that have made irreversible changes that affect our nature and environments. New trends have also grown around this context, and now people take care not only of the planet critical conditions, by contributing or acting more “green and eco-responsible” but also take care of their selves, making new and different physical activities to be on good shape,
also paying attention to a more “fresh” and natural diets.
The world population density, has also developed as a very aggressive factor for the cities functioning, because some cit-ies don’t have the enough infrastructure for supplying the best services to a con-tinuously increasing number of citizens, generating issues and difficulties for a good living condition.
An example of this situation is the city transport, which is directly related to the amount of citizens that have access to their own personal vehicle. In this par-ticular case, where the number of vehi-cles instead of decreasing, increase, the
mobility would need to consider other solutions in order to guarantee always the correct balance between citizens and cities infrastructure.
These last aspects, as well as the ecolog-ical “healthiness” trends, have shown that the solutions of the cities issues are not just a task of governments but also a part of citizen’s behaviors and practices.
12 13 the characteristics of food, which may be
studied or at least controlled to guaran-tee their highest quality. (For example, for some fresh products only the increasing temperature of 1 degree could reduce significantly its conservation period). Therefore, taking care of the handling procedure and food preservation effects is crucial in order to control food process-ing.
Foods that are left out at room tempera-ture, late or early suffer modifications of its organoleptic characteristics: altering the taste, color, odor and texture.
Those that are not properly protected can cause ailments and illnesses, most frequently affecting the digestive tract.
1.1Food preservation is the process of
treating and handling food to stop or slow down food spoilage, loss of quality, edibility, or nutritional value making pos-sible a longer food storage phase. Preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms, as well as retarding the oxidation of fats which cause rancidity. (1) When talking about food preservation, all the existing methods are looking to maintain food properties and chemical nature at an optimal level to take ad-vantage of its maximum benefits. All the food phases, from collecting, processing, distributing and storage, affect directly
Transport and food issues
1.0
vation. Consumer demand for healthier and more convenient foods also affects the way food is preserved. Eating should be pleasurable to the consumer, and not boring. People like to eat wide varieties of foods with different tastes and flavors. Variation in the diet is important, particu-lay for those how care about food health-ness. In food preservation, the important points that need to be considered are: - The desired level of quality
- The preservation length
- The group for whom the products are preserved
After storage of a preserved food for a certain period, one or more of its qual-take a look to the main reasons of food
preservation that affect agriculture plan-ning activities, production of value-added products( food products that can give better-quality in terms of improved nutri-tional, funcnutri-tional, convenience and sen-sory properties) and different variations of humans diet.
The agricultural industry produces raw food materials in different sectors. In-adequate management or improper planning in agricultural production can be overcome by avoiding inappropriate areas, times, and amounts of raw food materials as well as by increasing stor-age life using simple methods of
preser-healthiness aspect, were new markets have been growing, looking to reduce an remove preservatives and chemic sub-stances that improve food characteristic but affect directly the consumers.
Therefore, is important to understand and learn which are the existing and new developing preservation methods that let to increase the products quality, on a safe and efficient processes. Food pro-cessing needs to use simple and sophis-ticate preservation techniques, acquiring knowledge about the technology meth-ods and science mode of action.
In order to understand the necessity and importance of food preserve, we must
In order to prevent this kind of conse-quences is necessary to store them prop-erly; Food conservation is now defined as the set of techniques or methods that are subjected to preserve foods original characteristics for as long as possible, in order to prevent weathering processes with hygienic measures.
Food processing is considered as a inter-disciplinary science, were different tech-niques have been developed in order to guarantee not just food preservation, but also consumers satisfaction regard-ing high quality products on a nutritional and sensory aspect with an important attention to energy consume and envi-ronment care, which is also related to the
Fig. 1
16 17 perishable, harvested, fresh, minimally processed, preserved, manufactured, for-mulated, primary, secondary derivatives, synthetic, functional, and medical foods. The preservation method is mainly based on the types of food that need to be prepared or formulated.
any social needs.
Generally, there is no limitation on the amount of food that may be consumed. This does not mean that we can eat any food product as much as we want. Excessive amounts could be lethal, for example, by the content of salt, fat, and sugar, that are related to obesity, diabetes or heart diseases. Chemically, foods are mainly composed of water, lipids, fat, and carbohydrate with small proportions of minerals and organic compounds. Min-erals include salts and organic substanc-es include vitamins, emulsifiers, acids, antioxidants, pigments, polyphenols, and flavor-producing compounds. The differ-ent classes of foods are perishable, non
food and composition, formulation (for manufactured foods), packaging, and storage conditions. Quality loss can be minimized at any stage of food harvest-ing, processharvest-ing, distribution, and storage. When preservation fails, the consequenc-es range broadly from minor deteriora-tion, such as color loss, to food becoming extremely hazardous. (2)
1.2 Food characteristics
Foods are materials, that according to its final characteristics can be divided in processed, raw, or formulated that are destined to human or animals oral consumption for letting us to grow, have health, feel pleasure or just for satisfying ity attributes may reach an undesirable
state. Quality is an illusive, ever-changing concept. In general, it is defined as the degree of fitness for use or the condi-tion indicated by the satisfaccondi-tion level of consumers. When food has deteriorated to such an extent that it is considered unsuitable for consumption, it is said to have reached the end of its shelf life. In studying the shelf life of foods, it is im-portant to measure the rate of change of a given quality attribute. In all cases, safety is the first attribute.
The product quality attributes can be quite varied, such as appearance, sen-sory, or microbial characteristics. Loss of quality is highly dependent on types of
Protein 5% Fiber 12% Starch 25% Fructose 27% Glucose 28% Fat 3% Fig. 3 Fig. 4
All foods have a particular and specific chemical composition and a given acidi-ty level. This last aspect is very important for the development of micro-organisms; in fact, foods with a pH below 4.5 make the spore forming microorganisms not to develop, while if the value goes be-yond the 4.5 the development and mul-tiplication of these germs is favoured. An acid food triggers a chemical reaction in which it follows a subtraction of minerals to the body, as opposed to an alkaline food, which tends not to subtract miner-als acting as a balance. Because of this, a proper nutrition should not exceed ei-ther acidic or alkaline foods, but finding the right balance between them. This is
Food
pH Scale
Beef
5,2 – 5,9
Pork meat
5,8 – 6,1
Cheese
5 - 6
Fruits
2,5 - 7
Mayonnaise
4 – 4,5
Pickels
2 - 3
Tomato Juice
3,8 – 4,3
Wine
3
Yoghurt
4 – 4,5
(Table 1). pH ValuesThe (table 1) shows some pH values for different types of food, in order to under-stand and compare its acidic level, taking into account the range of food types for each category.
Note that foods that have a low pH are also those who go bad more difficult than the others.
Environments that have a high alkaline level allow and encourage a bacterial multiplication, that is why it is important to know the pH of foods because they can promote an acid or alkaline reaction, resulting in the neutralization of acid.
2.0 Intrinsic Factors affecting Microbial growth
2.1 -Power of Hydrogen (pH)
The pH is a scale where food acidity can be measured; The “p” is short for the Ger-man word for power, potenz and H is the element symbol for hydrogen. The pH has values ranging from 0 (very acidic) up to 14.14 (very alkaline) were 7 is con-sider as a neutral level. For example, pure water has a pH of 7.07, while the fruit has a pH generally acid. The pH of the hu-man stomach goes from 1-2 up to 4-5. When people eat, the stomach releases proteases and hydrochloric acid to aid in digestion.
ACID
ALKALINE
neutral <ph 5 >ph 9 Fig. 5 Fig. 620 21
the formation of bubbles on the dough during baking, due to the release of gas. This is not a case of alteration, but simply a phenomenon linked to the use of car-bon dioxide within the package. For the purposes of protective atmosphere what matters is its ability to form carbonic acid and increase the acidity of a foodstuff (lowering the pH). Causing acid environ-ments with fungicide and bacteriostatic properties.
Nitrogen is an inert gas, is unable to in-terfere with food, and is also soluble in water.
Is suitable for all foods, especially those containing aromatic and fatty substanc-es, precisely because it prevents oxida-tion and rancidity.
From a technical point of view then it is both a method of preservation and pack-aging, for which materials are required, able to provide perfect insulation and the ability to weld seal the opening.
One of the advantages of this method compared to vacuum, is the ability to prevent products to crush or, in the case of food cuts, that individual slices adhere indissolubly together, causing disappoint-ment to the consumer.
The success of this system has allowed, after a period in which it was limited to bakery products, fresh pastries, meats and sausages, the authorization for the use in all type of foods. (3)
troduction of an inert gas mixture, usually nitrogen and carbon dioxide can limit se-verely the bacterial growth, being aware that don’t interfere with the characteris-tics of the foods.
The use of gas mixtures in fact take into account possible effects on foods with which they are in contact.
MAP Gas Mixtures - A Guide (Table 2)
Carbon dioxide is a gas that has the property to be dissolved in water, as it is easy to verify by considering the soft drinks and carbonated mineral waters; an inconvenience that might occur, for example in the case of fresh pasta, is also reflected in a blood-level equilibrium
in which the balancing situation occurs when blood is basic-alkaline.
Now, considering that pathogenic germs make much effort to grow and produce toxins below pH 4 - 4 .5 and above pH 9, a series of methods and techniques have been developed in order to control the atmosphere of some foods, so that for example increasing its acidity, the pH level decreases or using food vacuum packaging’s the aerobic bacteria’s cannot live or develop.
2.2 Protective atmospheres
In the last case, air is simply removed from the package, while in the first one named as “protective atmosphere” an
in-Air CO2= 10-15% O2= 5-10% N2= 75-85% O2 H2O CO2 CO2 H2O O2
1)Initial protective atmosphere composi-tion.
(2) Oxygen consumption and production of carbon dioxide and water vapor due to the metabolic processes of the product. (3)Diffusion of gases through the selec-tively permeable packaging material.
Stable food: Aw < 0.65
“The water activity (aW) of a food is defined as the ratio between the va-por pressure of the food itself, when in a completely undisturbed balance with the surrounding air media, and the vapor pressure of distilled water under identi-cal conditions. A water activity of 0.80 means the vapor pressure is 80 percent of that of pure water. The water activity increases with temperature. The mois-ture condition of a product can be mea-sured as the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) expressed in percentage or as the water activity expressed as a decimal.”(4)
which is used by the microorganisms to develop and grow affecting the food quality and characteristics. These value is measured on a value of 0 to 1, where water has a (aw) of 1 and most of the foodstuffs are on a range of 0,2 to 0,99. When lower the (aw) less perishable will be the food product.
Based on the Aw value, food may be divided into:
Highly perishable food: Aw > 0.95 Perishable foods: 0.90 < Aw < 0.95 Food with intermediate :
Aw: 0.65 < Aw < 0.90
The water activity is a concept that re-fers to the quantity of free water that is available in the foods for the microbial growing. All the microorganisms need a certain level of water to live, grow and reproduce, for these reason most of the food conservation methods are focus on searching the way to reduce the foods free water levels.
Is important to differentiate what the Water activity means, and what the Total content of water of foods is. Every food-stuff contains a determine quantity of water, one fraction of it compose its mo-lecular structure and the other part is free or available, and is precisely these one
2.3 Water Activity
Microbial proliferation represents one of the most important and most dangerous causes of alteration (in the sense of an unwanted spontaneous transformation) of foods.
In order to multiply their selves, microor-ganisms need principally water, followed by appropriate conditions of temperature, acidity, presence (or absence) of oxygen, and nutrients.
The presence of water can then deter-mine the durability of a foodstuff, not in terms of quantity, but in terms of avail-ability of water itself.
Watermelon 94,6% H2O 0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 Absolut limit for all growth Fig. 9 Fig. 10
24 25 aroma, or functional Food Preservation: is the main problem with drying, in terms of quality. The cost of processing, pack-aging, transportation, and storage is less for dried products than canned and fro-zen foods.
The concentration of liquid foods is mainly carried out by thermal evapo-ration, freeze concentevapo-ration, and mem-brane separation.
Each method has its advantages and dis-advantages. Freezing changes the phys-ical state of a substance by changing water into ice when energy is removed in the form of cooling below freezing temperature. Usually, the temperature is evaporation while cooking; leaving the
food for a longer cooking time will make a more quantity of water to evaporate. (5)
But one of the most common meth-ods is Drying, where water activity is re-duced by taking out water. Drying in ear-lier times was done under the sunlight, but today many types of sophisticated equipment and methods are being used to dehydrate foods; huge varieties of dry-ing methods are now available. Drydry-ing is a method of water removal to form final products as solids, while concentration means the removal of water while retain-ing the liquid condition. The loss of flavor,
water activity of about 0.62.
The critical limits of water activity may also be shifted to higher or lower levels by other factors, such as pH, salt, antimi-crobial agents, heat treatment, and tem-perature to some extent.
Removing water, adding solutes, or change of solute–water interactions can reduce the water activity of foods. With the addition of solutes such as salt or sugar, which capture the free water of the foodstuffs, the free water would no longer be available for the microorgan-isms, paying attention to the change of food flavour that would be affected by the additive solution.
Water activity can also be reduced by Now it is important to identify which
methods can be used in order to control the food atmosphere related to free wa-ter content, once we recognized that the minimum water activity is the limit below which a microorganism or group of mi-croorganisms can no longer reproduce. As said before, for most foods, the water activity range goes from 0.2–0.9, having a very big range of food products that can easily provide the optimal conditions for the microorganism’s development. Pathogenic bacteria for example, cannot grow below a water activity of 0.85–0.86, whereas yeast and molds are more tol-erant of a reduced water activity of 0.80, but usually no growth occurs below a
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
participates in the formation of the cyto-skeleton and cell membranes, as well as in the regulation of the excitability of the nerve and muscle contraction. 90% of the calcium is stored in the bones, where it can be reabsorbed by blood. Milk and its derivatives are the main source of cal-cium.
The match, also present in many foods and especially in milk, is combined with calcium in the bones and teeth. It plays an important role in the metabolism of energy in cells, affecting the carbohy-drates, lipids and proteins.
Magnesium, present in most of the food, 2.5 Minerals
Inorganic minerals are necessary for the structural rebuilding of body tissues that are involved in processes such as the action of the enzyme systems, muscle contraction, nerve reactions and blood clotting. These mineral nutrients, which must be supplied in the diet, are divided into two classes: macro-elements, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, iron, iodine and potassium; and microelements, such as copper, cobalt, manganese, fluorine and zinc.
Calcium is necessary for developing bones and maintaining its rigidity. It also
our diet we should include a diversity of foods that make this sufficiently rich in order to keep functioning properly our body.
The nutrients are those components of foods that have energy, structural or regulatory functions. They are different groups of:
Minerals (regulatory) Vitamins (regulatory) Carbohydrates (energy) Proteins (Structural)
Lipids (energy and structural) Water
further reduced to storage level at –18°C. Microbial growth is completely stopped below –18°C, and both enzymatic and non enzymatic changes continue at much slower rates during frozen storage. There is a slow progressive change in or-ganoleptic quality during storage. Freez-ing is more popular than dryFreez-ing due to its ability to retain more fresh-like qualities in the food.
2.4 Food Nutrients
Foods are substances that are necessary for the maintenance of different phe-nomena’s that occur in the human body and to repair the losses that constantly occur. There is no a complete food, in
Fig. 13
28
portant for the formation of enzymes. It has discovered that the fluorine, which is deposited in the bones and teeth, is a necessary element for growth in animals. Fluorides, a class of compounds of fluo-rine, are important to prevent the demin-eralization of the bones. The fluoridation of water has proven to be an effective measure to prevent the deterioration of denture, reducing it to almost 40%. The other trace elements include chromium, molybdenum, and selenium.
is essential for human metabolism and very important to keep the electric poten-tial of nerve and muscle cells. Deficiency of magnesium between the groups who suffer from malnutrition, produces trem-ors and convulsions.
Sodium is present in small amounts in most of the natural products and abounds in ready meals and savoury food. It is also present in the extracellular fluid, which has a regulatory role.
Iron is necessary for the formation of haemoglobin, pigment of red blood cells responsible for transporting oxygen. However, this mineral is not absorbed easily through the digestive system. In men is sufficient, but women’s in men-strual age, needing almost two times more quantity of iron due to the loss that occurs in the menstruation, often have deficiencies that easily let the to assim-ilate iron.
Iodine is essential for the synthesis of hormones of the thyroid gland. Its defi-ciency causes goiter, which is an inflam-mation of the gland in the lower part of the neck.
The microelements are other inorganic substances that appear on the body in tiny amounts, but which are essential for good health, and are enough in almost all foods.
Among the most important microele-ments is copper, present in many en-zymes and proteins, containing copper, blood, brain, and liver. Copper deficiency is associated with inability to use iron for haemoglobin formation. Zinc is also
im-“The excitement of vitamins, nutrition and
metabolism permeated the environment.”
Paul D. Boyer
Water-soluble vitamins (vitamin C and complex vitamin B) cannot be stored, so its daily consumption is necessary to meet the needs of the body. Vitamin C, or Ascorbic acid, plays an important role in the synthesis and maintenance of con-nective tissue. Prevents scurvy, attacking the gums, skin and mucous membranes, and their main contribution comes from citrus.
Most important vitamin B complex vita-mins are thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), nicotinamide (B3), Pyridoxine (B6), Pan-tothenic acid, lecithin, choline, inositol, pa-ra-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), folic acid and cyanocobalamin (B12). These vita-many vertebrates, but has not yet
deter-mined its role in the human body. It has become very popular as a remedy for many and various ailments, but there is no clear evidence that alleviate any spe-cific disease.
The vitamin E is found in the oils of seeds and wheat germ. It is thought that it works as an antioxidant, protecting cells from damage caused by free radicals. Vitamin K is necessary for blood clotting, is produced in quantities sufficient in the intestine by bacteria’s, but is also provide by the vegetables of green leaf, spinach and cabbage, egg yolk and many other foods.
food containing this substance. Bile from the liver holds its decomposition, and then emulsified molecules pass through the lymphatic vessels and veins to be distributed in the arteries. The excess of these vitamins is stored in body fat, the liver and kidneys. Since they can be stored, it is not necessary to consume these vitamins every day.
Vitamin A is essential for skin cells and normal growth.
Vitamin D acts as a hormone, since it regulates calcium and phosphorus ab-sorption and metabolism
Vitamin E is an essential nutrient for
2.6 Vitamins
They are organic compounds, which act mostly in enzymatic systems to improve the metabolism of proteins, carbohy-drates and fats. Without these substanc-es breakdown and assimilation of food could not take place.
Certain vitamins are involved in the for-mation of blood cells, hormones, chem-icals in the nervous system and genetic materials. Vitamins are classified into two groups: fat-soluble and water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, E and K. The water-soluble include vi-tamin C and vivi-tamins B.
Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed with
Fig. 15
32 33
2.8 Fats or lipids
Fats produce more than twice the ener-gy. Being a compact fuel, fats are store very well to be used later to reduce the contribution of carbohydrates.
It is clear that animals need to store fat to supply their bodies during the cold or dry seasons. Dietary fats break down into fat-ty acids that pass into the blood to form triglycerides.
Fatty acids that contain the greatest pos-sible number of hydrogen atoms in the chain of carbon are called saturated fatty acids, which come mostly from the ani-mals.
remaining quantities are stored as fat in the adipose tissue and other tissues to be recovered and burned in situations of low consumption of carbohydrates. There is another category called complex carbohydrates, such as cereals, unrefined, tubers, fruits and vegetables, which also provide protein, vitamins, minerals and fats. A less beneficial source are foods made with sugar refined, such as con-fectionery and non-alcoholic beverages, products with a high content in calories but low in nutrients and provide large amounts of what nutrition specialists call empty calories.
There are two types of carbohydrates: starches, which are mainly found in ce-reals, legumes and tubers, and sugars, which are present in vegetables and fruits.
Carbohydrates are used by cells in the form of glucose, a major fuel of the body. After its absorption from the small intes-tine, the glucose is processed in the liver, which stores a part as glycogen, (poly-saccharide of reserve and equivalent to the starch in plant cells), and the rest passes into the bloodstream.
Glucose and triglycerides are transport-ed by the blood stream to the muscles and organs for their oxidation, and the mins are involved in a wide range of
im-portant metabolic functions and prevent diseases such as beriberi and pellagra. They are mainly in the yeast and liver.
2.7 Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates provide energy in the majority of human diets. Carbohydrate rich foods tend to be cheaper and more abundant compared with foods high in protein or fat content. Carbohydrates are burned during metabolism to produce energy, releasing carbon dioxide and water. Human beings also get energy, al-though in more complex way of fats and proteins from the diet, as well as alcohol.
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
possible contamination. Only when the bacterial contamination reaches a very high value sensory and organoleptic modifications appear.
The four sources of microbial contami-nants are soil, water, air, and animals (in-sects, rodents, and humans.
Each microorganism has an optimum temperature at which it grows best, a minimum temperature below which growth no longer takes place, and a maximum temperature above, which all developments suppressed. Bacteria that grow particularly well at low tempera-tures are called psychrophilic (cryophil-ic) or low-temperature organisms. Bac-teria with an optimum temperature of Invisibility of these organisms is the
ma-jor danger, because it can give us a false security while the environment, surfaces, food and our very own person may be contaminated without realizing it.
3,1 Food Contamination occurs when a
microorganism is able to get onto any type of surface or food.
We do not have the chance to see this event, except when the food character-istics have already changed, where there are no more chances to fix it, because altered food cannot be recover.
Usually the taste and smell of contami-nated food does not change immediate-ly, so it’s not just our senses to detect a
Human been is inhabited and hosted by some of these microorganisms, which can be useful or harmless, but some of them are also malicious causing us dis-eases.
By cause of its microscopic size (in the order of thousandths of a millimetre), it is possible just to see them as long as they are isolated and examined with a microscope.
These organisms don’t grow on a individ-ual size but multiply and grow in number in a division cycle on a x period of time, forming “colonies”, which can be seen with the naked eye (for example fruit mil-dew) a colony as big as a coin is formed by millions of individuals.
Unsaturated fatty acids are those that have lost some hydrogen atoms. Mono-unsaturated fatty acids that have lost only a pair of hydrogen atoms and the polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are missing more than one are included in this group. (6)
3.0 Microorganisms
Microorganisms are the microscopic liv-ing beliv-ings founded in all environments (not only in water), but also in the air, ground, and in the intestines and skin of humans and animals. These microscopic living organisms go from germs, Bacte-ria’s, yeasts, moulds, viruses, protozoa, and algae’s.
Fig. 19
36 37 ing step to its final period.
The microorganism’s development and growth in a foodstuff depend first of all on the food characteristics, chemical structure, pH level, water activity, pres-ence of other microorganisms and the relative humidity of the environment as well as its conditions.
In exchange for microorganism’s growth and multiplication, they must have their own “food” which is provided by proteins, minerals, carbohydrates and vitamins that are actually present in different food products. Not all of the microorganisms have the same nutritional needs, but the type of nutrients on a foodstuff will de-termine the type of microorganism that adaptive phase to the new
environmen-tal conditions. The initial period, know as slow or no-growth is called the “lag phase” and the shelf life of a food item is directly proportional to the length of this phase.
Now, the adaptation period is followed by an exponential growth period where the number of microorganisms population can double more than two times every hour under the appropriate conditions. If a drastic sanitation measure is not taken, the growing activity will not stop until its death.
This last fact is caused by a reduction of nutrients and the accumulation of toxins that start slowing down the growth,
mak-mission and destruction.
Bacteria are the main microorganisms responsible for the spoilage of foods (es-pecially moist foods). Acid and dry foods, are able to create an inadequate environ-ment for bacteria, but not for molds and yeast. Molds can be found on different type of cheese, spoiled foods and mois-ture surfaces. While some specific virus-es are prvirus-esent in certain humans and an-imals, and in general in different areas of low sanitation care, such as places where processed foods are in the same area as the uncooked ones; Not having care of hand washing can cause also a contam-ination of the products.
Once the contamination has occurred, the present microorganisms start and 20°C–45°C are mesophilic, and those
with an optimum temperature above 45°C are thermophilic.
One of the main reasons of perishable food spoilage is the exposure to warm temperatures, making the refrigeration process the ideal application to prevent food spoilage and premature degrada-tion of food quality do to microorgan-isms that cannot live under certain level of cold temperatures.
3.2 Microbial growth
In order to reach an accurate control of microorganisms is important to under-stand what they are and which ones are the factors that affect their growth,
trans-Microorganism Population
Time
Lag ExponentialGrowth Death
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Water content
Chemical composition
Contamination levels Use of inhibitors
Ph level
Temperature Humidity Oxygen level Air flow
ing strict sanitation practices
(2) Inhibiting growth by altering the envi-ronmental conditions
(3) Destroying the organisms by heat treatment or chemicals.
The best way to minimize contamination in food processing areas is to use fine air filters in ventilation systems to cap-ture the dust particles that transport the bacteria in the air. Of course, the filters must remain dry since microorganisms can grow in wet filters. Also, the venti-lation system must maintain a positive pressure in the food processing areas to prevent any airborne contaminants from entering inside by infiltration. The elimi-nation of condensation on the walls and the ceiling of the facility and the diver-sion of plumbing condensation drip pans of refrigerators to the drain system are two other preventive measures against contamination. Drip systems must be cleaned regularly to prevent microbio-logical growth in them. Also, any contact between raw and cooked food products should be minimized, and cooked prod-ucts must be stored in rooms with posi-tive pressures. Frozen foods must be kept at 18C or below, and utmost care should be exercised when food products are packaged after they are frozen to avoid contamination during packaging.” (5) Temperatures of 4°C or lower, are
con-sidered as a safe and optimal refrigera-tion temperature, for some microorgan-isms, the growth rate can double for each 3°C rise of temperature. (Table)
“Another factor that affects microbiolog-ical growth and transmission is the rela-tive humidity of the environment, which is a measure of the water content of the air. High humidity in cold rooms should be avoided since condensation that forms on the walls and ceiling creates the proper environment for mold growth and buildups. The drip of contaminated condensate onto food products in the room poses a potential health hazard. Different microorganisms react different-ly to the presence of oxygen in the envi-ronment. Some microorganisms such as molds require oxygen for growth, while some others cannot grow in the pres-ence of oxygen.
Some grow best in low-oxygen ronments, while others grow in envi-ronments regardless of the amount of oxygen. Therefore, the growth of certain microorganisms can
be controlled by controlling the amount of oxygen in the environment. For ex-ample, vacuum packaging inhibits the growth of micro-organisms that require oxygen. Also, the storage life of some fruits can be extended by reducing the oxygen level in the storage room.
Microorganisms in food products can be controlled by:
(1) Preventing contamination by follow-before can maintain or adjust the food
environment in order to create a series of difficult conditions for the perishable agents.
3.4 Temperature and rate growth
Temperature is a strong tool to consid-erate, because it’s essential not only for the microorganism’s growth but also for its reduction rate. Usually microorgan-isms grow best at warm temperatures, between 20 and 60°C. The growth rate declines at high temperatures, and die at still higher ones, above 70°C. This is the reason why cooling is an effective way of reducing the microorganisms growth rate, extending its shelf life.
may inhabit them.
Any living organism needs water to grow, and microorganisms cannot live in foods if the environment is not sufficiently moist. In foods that are refrigerated, such as fresh fruits, vegetables and meats the contamination phase starts at the ex-posed surfaces, that are more accessible to microbe attach’s.
In order to preserve food, is better to con-centrate not just on improving their char-acteristics, but modifying their environ-mental conditions, where is possible to take them to a better and desirable level, in this case thanks to different tempera-ture technics( heating, cooling, ventilat-ing, humidification, dehumidification and control of oxygen levels) that as learned
Fig. 23
Rate of growth
can generate a bad impact into the final foodstuff conservation period. Because of this, all the means of transport for food products must have the conditions to keep and conserve each single type of product at its own ideal level of tem-perature.
The term “cold chain” indicates all the means used to ensure the low-tempera-ture preservation of perishable food-stuffs, from the production phase to its final consumption, indicating the obliga-tory route that certain types of food must undertake to ensure that they reach the final consumption while maintaining its initial quality.
4.1 Definition
After identifying the may reasons in which food products can be affected, is important also to understand what hap-pens on all the phases of the products until they arrive to its final destination “consumption”. One of the most import-ant aspects, as we already discovered on the previous chapters, was the tempera-ture condition which needs to be con-trolled and studied in order to avoid any distortion of foods characteristics. Since the products need to be distributed into different channels of sales, is important to guarantee also while they are being “moved” into one place to another, the best environmental conditions to avoid important changes of temperature that
Cold Chain for food conservation
4.0
4.2 The phases
or better konwn as “rings” of the cold chain process are:
– Preservation of freshly harvested products, when talking about vegetables. – Product processing (both of animal and vegetable origin) in a refrigerated environment (if necessary) or rapid tem-perature reduction after undergoing the processes of transformation
– Storage in cold stores(by the producer) – The transport from production centers to the cold stores
– Storage in cold stores
– Delivery to distribution and sales cen-ters
– Storage at points of sale
– Transportation from point of sale to the place of consumption
–Storage by the consumer within do-mestic refrigerators, refrigerators
refreshment centers or communities. The correct execution of these rings, can guarantee the good perishable food con-ditions in terms of its appopiate tempera-ture level, necesary for the production, storage and marketing.
Warehouses, counters, refrigerators and tranports must be connected between them by an equal value of temperature in order to avoid strong variations that could change significantly the properties of foodstuffs when passing from one phase of the chain, into another.
In this particular field, there are some agreements concerning international carriage of perishable foodstuffs and the special equipment to be used,, as the
Production
Product Working
Pac
king station
Refriger
ation W
ar
ehouse
Tr
anspor
t
Refriger
ation W
ar
ehouse
Who
lesale
Retail
Consumer
Home conser
vation
Fig. 2444 45
2- Temperature between -18 e -30 C
Preservation of frozen products and creams.
3- Temperature between -30 e -40 C
Regard to the production processes of frozen products.
4.3 Types of chains
Because of these, there are two cold chains: one for the conservation of fresh products and the other one for the pro-duction and preservation of frozen prod-ucts.
In the next table, we can see a list of some fresh products, most of them fruits and vegetables, with their aproximate range of temperature for its preservation, the humity level indicated as a percentage, and the duration period of storage, which indicates the maximum time at which a fresh product can arrive if conserved at the indicated value of temperature. It is important also to have present the humidity of fresh products, because in this way we can also identify which prod-ucts can be more vulnerable to microor-ganisms attack, as we already saw that enviroments with high levels of water ar ideal for the microorganisms to grow and reproduce.
A.T.P, which means “Accord Transport Perissable, which defines the tempera-ture in which each type of food must be conserved during transportation.
When we refer to the conservation relat-ed to temperature is important to know the different levels or categories in which the products are clasified.
Because off the chemical and physical characteristics of each foodstuff product, the level of temperature for its preserva-tion period may be different, making a distinction between 3 concepts of con-servation that use cold as main source. The storage systems that use cold are-freezing, refrigeration and deep freezing. -Refrigeration: implies changing tem-peratures in food function, normally be-tween 0 and 7° c.
-Freezing: food is brought to a tempera-ture no higher than-15° c.
- Deepfreezing: Where food centre is brought to a temperature of not more than-18° c. in the shortest possible time. Therefore, there are three temperature levels that characterize the various refrig-eration applications in the production of food products.
1- Close to 0 C
Regard to the processing and preserva-tion of fresh food products
Apricots
Temperature: -0.5 , 0 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 1-2 weeks Pineapple
Temperature: 7 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 2-4 weeks Green bananas
Temperature: 11,5 , 14,5 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 3-4 weeks Ripe bananas
Temperature: 7 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 2-4 weeks Cherries
Temperature: -1 . 0 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 1-4 weeks Watermelons
Temperature: 2 , 4,5 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 2-3 weeks Melons
Temperature: 7 , 10 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 1-4 weeks Strawberries
Temperature: -0,5 , 0 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 7-10 days Green lemons
Temperature: 11 , 14.5 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 1-4 months Yellow lemons
Temperature: 0 , 4,5 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 3-6 weeks Mandarins
Temperature: -0,5 , 3,5 Humidity%:90-95 Duration of storage: 3-4 weeks Oranges
Temperature: 0 , 7 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 1-3 months Grapefruit
Temperature: 10 , 15,5 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 3-12 months Golden apples
Temperature: 3 Humidity%: 85-90 Duration of storage: 5 months Peaches
Temperature: -0.5 , 0.5 Humidity%: 85 90 Duration of storage 2-4 weeks Broccoli
Temperature: 0 Humidity%: 90 95 Duration of storage: 10-21 days Lettuce
Temperature: 0 Humidity%: 90-95 Duration of storage: 3-4 weeks
Tab X,. Shows the optimal storage conditions and duration for some fruits and vege-tables.
chemical manipulation.
In this case, temperature was the iden-tify factor, because non-only affects sig-nificantly food characteristics, but also is part of all the production and transport phases until final consumption.
The following maps, show part of the process in which all the information mas classified and organized in order to start searching the best route for contuene
Food Preservation Conclusions
The main idea was to learn and un-derstand which ones were the existing methods of food preservation, as well as the inner characteristic’s of food, in terms of chemical composition and properties, as well as the external conditions that could affect and increase the microor-ganisms development and grown. The main goal was to realize which ones where the factors that could represent a higher and determinant risk for the pres-ervation period, focusing to reveal not only the most pertinent factor in terms of a fast deterioration but also the most “easiest” factor to solve for a common user, without getting involved with food
UNES BILLA AUCHAN COOP ESSELUNGA Pronto Spesa
La prima conservazione del prodotto appena raccolto se si tratta di un vegetale La lavorazione del prodotto sia di origine animale che vegetale in ambiente refrigerato Lo stoccaggio in magazzini frigoriferi di conservazione presso il produttore Il trasporto dai centri di produzione ai magazzini frigoriferi di deposito lo stoccaggio presso i magazzini frigoriferi di deposito La distribuzione ai centri di distribuzi-one e vendita La conservazione presso i punti di vendita in appositi banconi e armadi refrigerati Il trasporto dai punti di vendita al luogo di consumo La conservazione presso il consumatore all'interno di frigoriferi domestici, frigoriferi di centri di ristoro, comunita' etc Manuale di Corretta Prassi
Igienica per la distribuzione di alimenti conservati in legame di temperatura Trasporto prodotti alimentari in regime di temperatura controllata Cadena del freddo Microrganismi presenti negli alimenti Batteri Lieviti protozoi Virus germini
Come combattere questi microrganismi
Acqua
Aria Ossigeno
Temperatura
E’ un fattore essenziale per la vita e quindi anche per la crescita batterica. E’ uno dei fattori più importanti
per la crescita batterica Alcune sostanze, come il sale, lo zucchero e alcune proteine (molto usata nel settore alimentare è la proteina contenuta nell’albume d’uovo), sono in grado di trattenere saldamente una parte dell’acqua contenuta in un alimento, in modo da renderla inutilizzabile per i batteri.
Il freddo rallenta tutte le reazioni biologiche e chimiche. Per ogni specie microbica sono state individuate le temperature ottimali di svilup-po, tuttavia anche sopra e sotto questi valori esistono ampi margini nei quali, più lentamente, questa crescita può continuare.
I microrganismi possono avere o meno bisogno di aria per poter sopravvivere.
Refrigerazione: di norma comprese tra 0 e 7° C. Congelamento: temperatura non superiore a - 15° C. Surgelazione: il centro dell’alimento viene portato a una temperatura non superiore a - 18° I metodi di conservazione
che applicano il freddo hanno la caratteristica di rallentare l’attività dei microrganismi e degli enzimi. PERCENTUALE DI UMIDITA’
(Aw) ESEMPI DI ATTIVITA’ DELL’ACQUA IN ALCUNI ALIMENTI Più vicino allo Aw 0: meno sarà attaccabile dai microrganismi
Più vicino allo Aw 1: più sarà deperibile
Per isolare i prodotti dall’aria è possibile ricorrere alla tecnica del confezionamen-to sotconfezionamen-tovuoconfezionamen-to oppure confezionamenconfezionamen-to in atmosfera protettiva. Nel primo caso viene semplicemente eliminata l’aria dalla confezione, mentre nel secondo caso avviene l’introduzione nella confezione di una appropriata miscela di gas inerti, di norma azoto e anidride carbonica, che ferma lo sviluppo batterico.
Atmosfera protettiva: ciò che conta è la sua capacità di formare acido carbonico e aumentare l’acidità di un alimento (abbassandone il pH). Provoca così ambienti acidi aventi proprietà fungicide e batteriostatiche. ABASSAMENTO DEL
PH Ambienti acidi aventi proprieta fungicide e batteriostatiche Carne Bovina Carne Suina Formaggio Frutta Maionese Sottaceti Succo di Pomodoro Vino Yoghurt 5,2 - 5,9 5,8 - 6,1 5-6 2,5-7 4-4,5 2-3 3,8 - 4,3 3 4-4,5 ALIMENTO PH I valori sono compresi tra 0 e 14. 7: NEUTRO I germi patogeni fanno molta fatica a crescere e non pro-ducono tossine al di sotto di pH 4-4,5 e sopra pH 9. NITROGENO L´ANIDRIDE CARBONICA Trasporto prodotti alimentari in regime di temperatura controllata Freschi: frutta e verdura
Conservazione tra +1 e +6°C per circa 5-7 giorni dal giorno
di confeziona-mento. Esclude dal servizio di consegna a domicilio i prodotti
freschi, gelati e surgelati così come terriccio e concimi per motivi di sicurezza.
I prodotti freschi e surgelati rispettano la catena del freddo e sono conservati alle temperature previste dalla legge. i prodotti freschi tra 0 e 4°C
i prodotti surgelati a -18°C Servizio-ordina la spesa online e il
personale provvederà a “farcela trovare pronta” per andare a prenderla
Billa consegna solo merce non deperibile
CONSEGNA a domicilio “La spesa che non pesa” di Coop è il servizio di spesa
online attualmente attivo solo nei punti vendita di Roma ATP
Impone regole comuni nella costruzione degli allestimenti isotermici per i trasporti frigoriferi refrigerati
Destinati al trasporto di alimenti deperibili a temperatura controlla-ta, e determinate prescrizioni per gli utilizzatori.
Sigla FNA - (Frigorifero) Mezzo adatto al trasporto di prodotti freschi con temperature positive sopra gli zero gradi. Sigla FRC - (Frigorifero) RRC - (refrigerato a piastre) Mezzi idonei al trasporto di prodotti surgelati o congelati con temperature al di sotto di zero gradi
http://www.centrogalileo.it/nuovaPA/Articoli%20tecnici/Panno/catenafreddo.htm PRODOTTI ALIMENTARI TEMPERATURA
UMIDITA
Tre livelli di temperatura che caratterizzano le diverse applicazioni della refrigerazione nel settore della produzione della commercializzazione dei prodotti alimentari. 1- Prossimo a 0 C Riguarda la lavorazione e la conservazione di prodotti alimentari “freschi” 2- Temperature fra -18 e -30 C Riguarda la conservazione di prodotti surgelati e creme gelate 3- Temperature fra -30 e -40 C Riguarda i processi di produzi-one di prodotti surgelati.
Esistono pertanto due catene del freddo: quella per la conservazione dei prodotti freschi e quella per la produzione e la conservazione dei pro-dotti surgelati.
Gli anelli statici della catena del freddo (magazzini, celle, banconi, frigoriferi domestici) devono essere collegati mediante vettori, i quali consentono il trasferimento delle derrate senza che queste subiscano apprezzabili variazioni di temperatura durante il trasporto.
Condizioni di conservazione ottimali e la relativa durata per alcuni prodotti ortofrutticoli.
I frigoriferi domestici operano senza alcun controllo. Condizioni di conservazione
Tutti i sistemi di refrigerazione utilizzati nel processo distributivo dei prodotti alimentari sono sottoposti a controlli e monitoraggi Prima l'acquisto.
Dopo l'acquisto. Le condizioni di conservazione dei cibi, dopo l'acquis-to, dipendono esclusivamente dalla diligenza e dalla sensibilita' del consumatore
Frigoriferi domestici
Quelli con un solo compressore dotati di due scomparti (+4 C; -18 C) hanno un volume complessivo compreso tra i 250 ed i 350 litri. Lo scomparto per la conservazione dei surgelati non supera, in genere, il 25% del volume complessivo.
TRASPORTO
Veicoli per la distribuzione locale Veicoli per trasporti a media distanza Veicoli per trasporti a lunga distanza
Veicolo composto da un trattore stradale e da un semirimorchio delle dimensioni in pianta di 13620 mm 2600 mm in grado di accogliere 33 europallets (dimensioni mm 1200 mm 800)
Sia la larghezza di questi veicoli pari a 2600 mm che lo spessore delle pareti, pari a 60 mm sono uguali a quelli dei veicoli adibiti al trasporto a lunga distanza.
Veicoli coibentati Veicoli a piastre
I veicoli coibentati sono realizzati, installando uno strato isolante sulle pareti interne della furgonatura metallica originaria. Vengono realizzati mediante diversi sistemi, quali la schiumatura diretta o il montaggio sulla faccia interna di pannelli isolanti prefabbricati.
Vantaggi Rapidita di ripristino della temperatura - dopo l'innalzamento causato dall'apertura delle porte La facilita di carico e scarico delle merci CONSERVAZIONE PER REFRIGERAZIONE TEMPERATURA DI CONSERVAZIONE REFRIGERAZIONE IN ATMOSFERA MODIFICATA Conservazione in
atmosfera controllata Conservazione sottovuoto
I PRODOTTI REFRIGERATI SI SUDDIVIDONO IN Prodotti refrigerati durante il trasporto e lo stoccagio, ma venduti a temperatura ambiente (frutta, verdura, uova)
Prodotti distribuiti, conservati, venduti a temperatura di frigorifero Alimenti (carne, frattaglie, pollame, pesce fresco, latte crudo o pastorizzato, prodotti lattiero - caseari, burro) DETERIORAMENTO DEGLI ALIMENTI Reazioni Fotochimiche Fattore intrinseci Correlati con l´alimento stesso Fattore estrinseci Legati all´ambiente in cui il cibo è con-servato Temperatura Presenza di gas (CO2 e O2) Tipo e numero di microrganismi presenti nell’alimento
Alterazioni chimiche degli amminoacidi
Sensibilità: Intensità e tipo di radiazione Distanza dalla sorgente Durata esposizione Proprietà ottiche della confezione Radiazione Lipidi: ossidazione U.V. e denaturazione Proteine Vitamine: alterazione Pigmenti: alterazione Alterazioni caratteristiche organolettiche: colore, sapore. Riduzione qualità nutrizionale: vitamine.
Car vs Bicycles
5.0
times, with all the confortable character-istics of having a private space.
The following graph, shows the number of cars sold worldwide from 1990 to 2015 (in million units)
It represents the number of cars sold worldwide from 1990 through 2014. Ad-ditionally, it presents a forecast for 2015. Just under 74 million automobiles are ex-pected to be sold by 2015.
Now, it is difficult to know how many cars are in the world but “on 2010 there was an approximate number of cars on the world’s roads of one billion , according to a study that has spurred debate on what the rapidly-growing car population will In these case is very common to find
the same type of vehicles in most of the world cities where pavement roads and streets are found. These vehicles such as: Four-wheels: Cars, trucks, vans
Three-wheels: tricycles
Two-wheels: Motorcycles and bicycles are the most common to be found. Without searching any data or statistics is easy to establish which ones are the most used in terms or citizens purchas-es and demands. The car is on the first place, because is the “cheaper” transport a citizen can buy, with the possibility of carrying more than 2 persons (up to 5 in medium size vehicles) in which long distances can be travelled on very short
ones, which are the ones that use the same roads of “private vehicles” are: bus-es, taxies and human traction vehicles. The other part of public transport corre-sponds to the ones that need their own infrastructure, using their own lines and roads, these types of transports, such as: trains, trams and subways are more effi-cient in terms of time and displacement than the others because don’t need to share the same space, avoiding delays by traffic because of the huge amount of private vehicles circulation.
On the other hand, there are the Private vehicles, which correspond to the biggest percentage of vehicles moving in the cit-ies, according to the number of citizens.
5.1 City bike context
We all know what living in a city means, and we also know which ones are the most efficient ways to move around it, in order to reach on the most fast and con-fortable way our destinations.
Obviously not all the cities work on the same way, but most of them have in common the same means of transport, and the same users requirements. We can start saying that on the transpor-tation field, every city is divided in two: Public Transport, and Private. The public transport is not always the same because it depends on each countries resources, politics, infrastructure, etc. But the main
Fig. 26
Fig. 27
52 53
efficient in terms of space saving, where the size proportion compared to 1 person is much more coherent. But even at this point the choice could go further, as by two-wheels vehicles we intend Motorcy-cles and bicyMotorcy-cles, there´s also the option of choosing this second one, which is a greener transport solution, removing the fuel consumption, reducing contamina-tion and expenses.
Public transportation is not the only al-ternative to the car. The Automobile Association in the United Kingdom has manifested different programs to en-courage its members to use more often the bike and has conducted a study on streets of Riga for several hours to
high-light the absurdity of using a large car to move a single person. The stunt was organized as part of European Mobility Week, an ongoing campaign that ex-plores sustainable urban mobility around Europe”x
For this reason a lot of mobility problems have being occurring, making citizens to think on different ways to move, especial-ly when living on a medium-small size cities, where the distances are not worth to be traveled on cars, thinking in terms of time efficiency and economy.
.It’s in this specific case where the two-wheel vehicles start growing, being more
for loads and luggage.
The problem starts when people use vehicles that are intended for carrying at least 4 passengers, just for their own use. This means that 1 person occupies the space on the road of 4, which at the same time means that if the other 3 have the same type of car, 4 people will be using the space of 12, and so on. “A few Latvian activists from a branch of the bicycle advocacy group Let’s Bike it recently created a visual reminder of the space taken by cars on a typical road. To accomplish this, the group fabricated bamboo skeletons shaped like actual cars and mounted them on their bikes. The activists then cycled around the mean for the world’s economy and
en-vironment.
The number of cars exceeded 1.015 bil-lion in 2010, jumping from 980 milbil-lion the year before.”
5.3 Car Disadvantages
This not only represents a very big im-pact in terms of CO2 contamination, but also affects dramatically the mo-bility. One of the biggest problems for critics and eco-friendly communities is the space that cars occupy respect to a 1-person dimension. There are no com-mercial cars made for a single person, at least 2 or 3 passengers can be on board in addition to the space that is indented
x- http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/08/23/car-population_n_934291.html http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/10/lets-bike-it-bamboo-car-skeletons/ Fig. 28
dramatically improve and stop the en-vironmental negative conditions. At the same time that renewable energies have being growing, and on the present days are also part of the market, with differ-ent vehicles that have being developed by well known and new car production companys, such as Volvo, Bmw, Au- di,Mercedes-Benz,Mitsubishi,Peugeot,-Fiat, which have their own laboratories and team groups of engineers, looking to create the best solution in terms of safety, efficiency and techonolgy for the future cars that could be part of our cities on the next years.
In fact, most of the improvements done on this areas, are looking to change the If cars have turn into a real mobility and
contamination problems, then why not think on other Eco solutions than can also reduce the levels of contamina-tion, reducing the negative effect on the ozone layer? Solutions as: electric, hybrid, solar cells, nitrogen and neat ethanol ve-hicles are actually part of the solution, and probably the best, in terms of the huge amount of vehicles and users de-mands.
If the biggest percentage of CO2 con-tamination comes from fossil fuel cars and trucks all around the world, then the introduction of renewable fuels will
members of the family, the bike is, above all, more fast than cars on urban routes of short distances.
In Europe 30% of journeys made by car cover distances of less than 3km and 50% less of 5 km. In this context, bicycle can advantageously replace the car for a significant demand, directly contribut-ing to the reduction of traffic and bottle-necks. “The potential of the bicycle is not despicable, a 40% of the total number of movements is performed for going to the place of work or school, the remain-ing 60% is due to purchases, services, entertainment, activities, etc.)”7
But why using the bicycle and not other mean of transport?
“car drivers” who are also cyclists, in order to change its behaviors.
In Ahrus (Denmark) an operation called “Bikebusters” has demonstrated that even in a country where the alternatives to the car are already highly developed, there is still a potential for change in the habits of motorists in favor of more eco-logical means of transport.
A recent study on short-distance move-ments financed by the European Union reveals the huge proportion of journeys made by car that could be perfectly done with another mean of transport. Technical improvements have made the bike a modern vehicle, comfortable and effective. It doesn’t contaminates, is silent, cheap, discreet and accessible to all the
Space consumption 100 10 8 1 6 Primary energy consumption 100 30 0 405 34 CO2 100 29 0 420 30 Nitrogen monoxides 100 9 0 290 4 Hydrocarbons 100 8 0 140 2 CO 100 2 0 93 1 Total atmospheric pollution 100 9 0 250 3 Induced risk of accident 100 9 2 12 3
Fig. 30
Fig. 31
56
findustria ANCMA, the National Associ-ation of motocycle accessories, in 2014, 1,644,592 bicycles were sold, which rep-resent an increase of +6.6% compared to 2013. The growth was also for the production cycle, of 2,728,600 with an increase of +2.1%. The most requested ones are the city bicycles with manual transmission, also good for cycling (32%), followed by mountain biking (31%) and child (18%).
Road bikes are about 6%, the classic from cities without change on 9% and those with pedal assistance a 4%.”9 “future” by slowly introducing new
ve-hicles to change the ones that already exist. Unfortunately, the actual condition of the planet is critcal, and the transition period between changing fossil fuels ve-hicles into renewable fuel ones will take for sure a long time.
Even if the new technologies and fuels are well received and are having a posi-tive impact on the environment, the bicy-cle appears as one of the best choices, most of all because of the its benefits in this case not only “eco” but also of mo-bility (space reduction), healthiness and recreation.
“In Italy, by 2012, the number of bicycles sold exceeded the one of cars, as hap-pened in the 1960s. According to
Con-Fig. 32 9 - http://www.iodonna.it/benessere/fitness/2015/06/04/la-crescita-delle-bicicletta-felice/?refresh_ce-cp
2014
1,644,592
2014
2,728,600
Sales
Production
“LIFE is like riding a bicycle, to keep your
balance, YOU must keep moving”.
5.5 Bicycle sales and production in Italy
Mental Health/ Cycling has a relaxing effect due to uniform movement, which stabilizes physical and emotional funcionts Balance/ Cycling produces the balance between exertion and relaxation, which is important for the body´s inner equilibrium Heart / It reduces the risk of having a heart attack by more than 50%
Back Pain / Cycling posture is optimum, and the cyclic movement of the legs stimulates muscles in the lower back
Waistline / Cycling is ideal for targeting problem areas, it increases fitness and stimulates the body´s fat metabolism
Coordination / Moving both feet around in circles while steering with both hands and controlling your body weight is excelent practice for coordination skills.
Joints / The circular movement of cycling assists the transport of energy and other metabolic produces to the cartilages, reducing the risk of arthrosis.
Muscles / A week of inactivity reduces the strenght of the muscular system by up to 50%. During cycling most of the body´s muscles are activated.
