Miller Magazine Issue: 125 May 2020

95 ARTICLE MILLER / MAY 2020 upon their arrival after 55 days of voyage. It should be no- ted that the voyage took place during August-September 2019. The loading port was in Ivory Coast in Africa, then the ship passed South African coast when the temperature there was winter with average night temperatures around 7o to 8oC, and during the day 17o to 18o C. Then the ambient temperature rose to an average of 30oC at arrival close to Malaysia. Such temperature fluctuations may cause significant moisture migration. In containers without TSL (Table 4) the average FFA mea- sured on samples taken from the bags was 2.30 and the mc was 8.73%. The critical mc for safe storage of cocoa be- ans (70% equilibrium r.h.) is at 28°C, 7.4% (Gough, 1975), whereas the average mc recorded in the container without TSL was 8.73%. Such mc is equivalent to a r.h. of 78% that enables microflora development and the consequent excess humidity damage of the beans. That conveys to the result of average 2.30% FFA that is above the acceptable limit of 1.75% FFA. It should be noted that those containers without TSL were equipped with the desiccant "Clariant blanket". Similar to the tests carried out on groundnuts the use of desiccant could not satisfactorily prevent moisture migration. In containers with TSL (Table 5) (Fig. 7) average mc was 7.41% close enough to the critical mc. The average FFA was 1.56% below the acceptable upper limit (1.75%) for processing cocoa beans. These results clearly indicate the successful storage during the shipment of the cocoa beans through a cold region (winter in South Africa) and back to a tropical climate in Malaysia. The TSL was demonstrated to have triple advantages; it effectively reduces the chances of condensation, controls infestation and FFA levels. Fig. 4 - At night temperatures are lower and water holding capacity of air is reduced at the headspace of the container. Fig. 5 – Moisture is translocated from bot- tom layers to deposit on the cool surface of container roof and the commodity. Fig. 6 - Use of TranSafeLiners of GrainPro prevent condensation. Fig. 7 – View of sealed hermetic liner termed TranSafeLiner by GrainPro.