Smarter, more efficient household appliances

Smarter, more efficient household appliances

By Zatni Arbi

Each time Didi returned from abroad, he would have been away
from his family and from Indonesia for at least eight months at a
time. He worked on a cruise ship, and his contract sometimes
lasted up to a whole year. It was not surprising that the moment
he reached his home in Surakarta, Central Java, he would start
calling every food hawker that passed his home -- sate ayam
(chicken satay), siomay (dumplings with peanut sauce), mie bakso
(noodles with meatballs), singkong goreng (fried cassava), gado-
gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), you name it. "I've
badly missed these kinds of food for months," he would say, "and
I'm not going to wait any longer."

Naturally, Didi's wife was the one who got the ulcer first.
She knew that, after so many months of eating only "safe" food on
the cruise ship, Didi would need some time to rebuild his
stomach's resilience for the kinds of food he was consuming back
home. Didi knew it, too, but he was just too obsessed with all
the local food that he could not help himself any longer.

In the U.S. and elsewhere in the developed world, people are
very careful with the food that they prepare -- especially if it
is to be served to others. If guests happen to develop stomach
problems just after having a meal at a restaurant, for example,
that may lead to lawsuits being filed against that restaurant.
Even at charity and fund-raising events people should follow the
right hygienic procedure in preparing the food that they sell.
Even then we still hear of cases where people have suffered from
food and microbiological hazards in the more advanced countries.

Here, as most Indonesians have been trained, or rather become
immunized, for poorly handled food since childhood, we seem to
have developed a mechanism to tackle food hazards better than
people in developed countries. That is not to say that bad food
never causes us problems. You may still remember numerous cases
in which people were sent to hospitals after consuming food that
was improperly cooked by a catering service.

Storing food

Speaking of food safety, just imagine how food for astronauts
is prepared. Needless to say, having a case of diarrhea caused by
improperly prepared food would be the last thing that these
people would want to happen to them while floating in
gravitation-free outer space.

Interestingly, last year, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) updated the food safety program that it had
adopted almost 30 years ago for astronauts. "Space-age technology
designed to keep food safe in outer space may soon become
standard here on Earth," the FDA writes in its backgrounder
released in August 1999. The science-based program is called
HACCP, pronounced "hassip".

The name stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Point. USDA, which is in charge of ensuring the safety of meat
and poultry, has also enforced HACCP as the standard procedure in
companies that provide these food products. The FDA, which
regulates all other foods besides these products, has been
actively proposing regulations requiring the adoption of HACCP
for all foodstuff, both domestic and imported.

In the light of the earnestness shown by the FDA in promoting
HACCP through education, training and other initiatives, it is
understandable that appliance makers such as Electrolux, Maytag,
GE, Kenmore, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Amana and others will soon
have to make their products HACCP compliant if they want to
maintain their presence in the U.S. market.

Here in Indonesia the most popular appliances are made by
Japanese and Korean appliance makers, such as Mitsubishi, Sharp,
Sanyo, Toshiba, LG and Samsung, and we probably have the least
regulated market in terms of hygienic requirements.

New technologies

Electrolux has come up with a range of refrigerators equipped
with what they call SMART electronic controls that enable these
appliances to think. These fridges, most of which are still
intended for food service usage, have probes that continuously
feed the data on the ambient temperature, the storage
temperatures, the condenser and the evaporator. The brain of the
fridges will calculate the right balance and set the fridge to
achieve and maintain it. It will also record its performance for
the last seven days, so that when something goes wrong the chef
will be able to track down the culprit.

Technicians also love the SMART electronics on these
Electrolux refrigerators, because, like the Lightpath diagnostic
tools on IBM servers, it will help quickly direct them to the
failed components if troubles occur. Electrolux' SMART
refrigerators also have HACCP capabilities.

In addition to proper handling of foodstuff, environment-
friendliness is naturally another important feature that
appliance makers have to include in their products. The SMART
refrigerators from Electrolux help preserve the environment by
reducing their energy consumption. Defrosting, for example, will
be done only when necessary, not at a regular interval like in
more conventional refrigerators.

Maytag makes one of the most popular refrigerators in the U.S.
In fact, in its Buying Guide 2000, Consumer Reports places
several Maytag products on top of their list of recommendation.
Maytag has introduced a new technology called ClimateZone. The
idea is based on a finding that different foods fare better in
different temperatures. Try putting mangoes, papayas, oranges and
watermelon inside your fridge at the same time, and you will
notice that they spoil at different rates.

ClimateZone basically allows us to set the ideal temperature
for separate drawers inside its new refrigerators. For example,
we can set the temperature for the drawer where we keep oranges
to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, which will keep the fruit juicy the
longest. Produce, such as lettuce, will remain crisp in a
temperature of 34 degree, while meat should be kept in a separate
31-degree drawer. This is the coldest temperature without
freezing the meat, and this temperature will preserve the meat's
texture. In a ClimateZone fridge, cold air is circulated around
the drawers instead of blown straight over the food, and this
helps prevents food from drying out

Environmental issues

As preservation of the environment is a big concern, home-
appliance makers have also come a long way in ensuring that their
products do not contribute to further depletion of our ecosystem.
In refrigerators, for example, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which is
harmful to the ozone, has been replaced by more environmentally
friendly refrigerants such as hydrofluorocarbons (HPCs) and
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

Washing machines are also getting more efficient. To reduce
water usage and electricity consumption, appliance makers in the
U.S. are increasingly making front-loading washing machines that
have been very popular in Europe for a long time. In this model,
you open the front door and place your laundry through the
opening. Here in Indonesia the top loaders are the most popular
models because they cost much less than front loaders. The
latter, however, require less water than the top loaders. Also,
because less water is used, energy requirement is also lower.
Besides, front loaders tend to be quieter.

Microwave ovens have become much more efficient than they were
a decade ago. In the old days, when you cooked with your
microwave oven, you might have gotten food that was overcooked on
the outside but undercooked in the inside. New technologies
prevent this from happening. Panasonic, for example, uses a
technology called Inverter that enables you to have your food
cooked evenly. Better still, ovens with the Inverter technology
can keep food warm but not overcooked by maintaining a very low
level of microwave power inside the box. Microwave ovens from
other manufacturers use sensors that measure humidity to
determine whether the food is sufficiently cooked or not.

Designs

Finally, in addition to the introduction of new technologies
into our appliances, their designs have also changed. GE, among
others, offer refrigerators that can be fitted with wood so that
they can fit the color and finish of your kitchen cabinets. GE
calls this line of fridges CustomStyle. More significant is
perhaps the fact that boxy shapes are going away. Even the old
toaster and blender now come in more stylish designs, and they
command higher prices, of course.

Just like computers, appliances come with new technologies,
new levels of efficiency and new pro-style designs.
Unfortunately, unlike computers, we do not buy a new refrigerator
or a new microwave oven every three years, do we? Unless, of
course, we are living the life of Riley.