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Abstract
Excerpts from the report: Today mechanically refrigerated railcars are being constructed tighter than previously to improve the efficiency of the refrigeration and to facilitate the deliberate modification of the car atmosphere for those shippers desiring this service. Commodities with high respiration rates, such as lettuce, cause a modification of the atmosphere in these tightly constructed cars. The carbon dioxide levels tend to build up and oxygen (02) levels, to be reduced. Because of the relationship observed between C02 levels and brown stain, and because of the absence of continuous C02 records during transit in the new railcars, a 10-car test shipment of lettuce was made from Salinas, Calif., to the New York marketing area during July and August in 1970. Carbon dioxide and O2 levels in the cars were measured both enroute and at destination, and the market quality of the lettuce was evaluated at destination.