The Agroster Co. Ltd. - 1106 Budapest, Jaszberenyi street 5., Hungary – treats several products by ionizing energy as a service to carry out determined technological purposes. Agroster provides information about the services for the customer as follows.
The treatment dose is always determined by the customer who informs Agroster in a written way. This can be done in the shipping documents of the product, in a contract or order, or by filling in the ordering form of Agroster.
Agroster helps the customer to determine the treatment dose and getting to be familiar with the changes in the products induced by the treatment by the following ways:
- Agroster carries out sample treatment or treatment of a series of samples to help the customer to choose the right efficient treatment dose to achieve the technological purpose (e.g. the given rate of reducing microbial infection) and to make sure this dose is harmless for the product and the packaging of the product.
- Agroster suggests dose based on microbial results.
- Agroster suggests dose by help of a list composed by data available in the technical literature
The examinations before and after the irradiation are to be carried out by the customer (e.g. microbial, sensing, shelf life examinations)
Agroster provides dose determined by the customer. The properties and the manufacturing circumstances of the product (e.g. raw materials, technology, packing materials, storage circumstances, rate and kind of infection) are not known for Agroster. The treatment of products is carried out in the closed original packages.
Therefore Agroster is not responsible for achieving or not the technological purpose neither for the undesired changes nor damages in the product.
The unit of dose is Gray [Gy]. In the practice kGy is used which is a thousand times bigger unit. The other important factor besides the amount of dose is the character of dose.
The ionizing energy passing through the product is absorbed and the intensity of the energy is smaller and smaller getting closer to the centre of the packages. The absorbed quantity of energy - i.e. the dose - of the points of the product depends on density, width of layer and the way of packaging of the product. The dose also depends on the applied technology of treatment i.e. the position of the packs in the carriages or in the irradiation area if standing irradiation is used.
The described dose distribution makes necessary to prescribe the character of treatment dose which can be minimum, maximum or average.
Minimum dose treatment character means that every point of the product will get at least the prescribed dose but in most points mainly on the surface of the pack maybe much more (maybe 1.2 – 2.5 times more) appliing either conveyor carriage or standing technology.
Maximum dose treatment character means the opposite i.e. the prescribed treatment dose will be the biggest in the product in the conveyor carriages and all the other points of the product will get less dose.
Average dose means that the prescribed treatment dose in the product in the conveyor carriage is the calculated average of the biggest and the smallest doses.
The absorbed dose in the product is measured by dosimeters placed on the product, the measured values are registered and stored at least for five years by Agroster.
The measured doses are distributed around the prescribed treatment dose. The method of measuring and the criteria of acceptance of the measured values are fixed in the quality control system of Agroster. Agroster fills in a proof of treatment sheet upon the decision of the customer.
The customer accepts that the dose choosen by help of Agroster can loose validity upon the changes in the manufacturing and storage circumstances (technology, applied materials, applied packing materials, OEM-s). In these cases it is suggested to make sure again of effectiveness of the prescribed dose.
Agroster carries out the sample treatments for finding the right dose for the treatment free. Sample means the quantity of product to be necessary for the examinations proving the effectiveness of the dose but not more in general than 2 kg-s.
Treatments for other purposes such as for scientific or other experiments or to validate an irradiation are not considered a sample irradiation therefore these are not free.
The customer's responsibility is to make sure that the documents such as shipping document, order or ordering sheet of the product passed for treatment for Agroster are signed by his authorized person. Agroster doesn't check the authentification of the signature.
The customer has to pay for the service. The fee of the service depends on the amount of the product to be treated, the treatment dose and the amount of product which can be put in the carriages of the conveyor and is calculated by means of a valid price list. The load of carriages is in conjunction of the density and the way of packing.
The day of fulfilment is the day of delivery of the product acknowledged by the customer. Agroster fills in a shipping document to prove the fact of fulfilment which must be signed by the representative of the customer. Agroster consideres the receiver of the product and the transport document the representative of the customer and doesn't check if this is legal or not.
The customer gets information on that part of the price list which is relevant for him at the production department of Agroster. The deadline of payment is 8 banking days in general calculated from the date of the account.
The customer has to provide such a packing which prevents the reinfection after treatment. Transporting products to and from Agroster is the task of the customer.
Moving the products onto the local transporting devices from the van and back at the facility of Agroster is the task of Agroster in that case the products are packed on pallets otherwise it is the task of the customer.
In case of a long term contract the customer's products preferred compared to products of casual customers, special payment terms and discount can be applied on quantity basis.
Agroster follows the prescriptions and standards of treatment of products by ionizing energy and calls the customers' attention to follow these as well.
Valid since 26th august, 2005
Agroster Irradiation Co. Ltd.