Meat displayed in a refrigerated counter in a butcher shop can undergo two types of alterations that economically harm users (in this case, the butcher shops):

• the oxidation of the surface of the goods (colour variation);

• a 2.96% loss of mass in 24 hours and a 5.56% loss in 48 hours.

The first problem is reflected in the need for the operator to remove the oxidised layer of meat (to make the goods more visually appetising), causing obvious economic harm. The second involves economic harm due to the Δmass of the displayed meat over 24 or 48 hours.

The technology used until 2015 to store meat was historically of two kinds: forced ventilation and static.

With our new G-Concept feature, Criocabin targeted a hybrid, semi-static system with a very slow, low energy consumption ventilation system. Unlike the systems used until now, the entire cooling system is supplied with glycol.

The high thermal exchange coefficient of the glycol refrigerant allowed us to work with a higher refrigeration temperature (with equal performance), resulting in a remarkable energy savings compared to a normal gas-cooled system.

The liquid is chilled using a water/gas exchanger located under the counter, an exclusive Criocabin design.

The innovative G-Concept helped us to meet our two main objectives:

1. the G-Concept system does not oxidise the meat;

2. the especially moderate ventilation and optimal humidity and temperature control makes the decrease in the mass of the meat less than 50% of what it is in a normal ventilated counter, with a remarkable financial savings for the butcher shop (1.35% after 24 hours and 2.75% after 48 hours).

Just consider that about 170 kg of meat can be displayed in a counter with an average length of 5 meters. From this, we can estimate a daily weight loss of 4.25 kg on a ventilated counter, versus about 1.7 kg in the G-Concept system.

The annual losses in a ventilated counter can be estimated as:

– 4.6 kg × 250 working days = 1,150 kg/year (in the best case).

The annual losses in a G-Concept system can be estimated as:

– 2.3 kg × 250 work days = 575 kg/year (in the worst case).

A butcher with a medium to small sized shop spends about 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening setting out and then removing the meat from the counter to move it to the cold room. With the G-Concept, the butcher no longer needs to perform these tasks: the meat can be left in the counter, replacing only the goods that are sold.

At night (and on days when the shop is closed) the only thing to be done is closing the night shields.

Thus, we can estimate a labour savings of about 3 hours/day:

3 hours/day × 250 work days = 750 hours/year