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.