Innovative Refrigeration Technology for 17,000 Meals

The European Union’s F-Gas Regulation is becoming a serious issue. This means that the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases, which are harmful to the climate, will be gradually phased out.

But there are other alternatives such as refrigeration brine as is shown in a practical example. A second topic is still at the beginning of the industry discussion. Can the storage temperature of frozen products be increased to – 15 ° C? This is the beginning of a controversial discussion. By Dieter Mailänder, Redaktionsburo Dieter Mailänder

Blast chilling and freezing are indispensable technologies. Especially in industrialized countries, it is inconceivable to imagine an uninterrupted supply of foods of all kinds to the population without professional refrigeration technology in production, distribution, and commercial as well as private processing.

However, this supply can be viewed from very different perspectives: for example, from that of the comprehensive distribution of frozen foods, which large parts of Europe depend on. But this does not change the issue of transport traffic, which is not our topic.

Another perspective arises when you consider professional large-scale kitchens and their workflow, which is our topic here. What is the significance of blast chillers and blast freezers for them? What requirements will the devices have to meet in the future?

Production Processes with Wide-Ranging Advantages

Cook & freeze, but especially cook & chill are production processes with wide-ranging advantages. On the one hand, cook & freeze allows you to process fresh or only temporarily available raw mate-rials, such as mushrooms or wild fowl, freshly harvested or freshly hunted, and store them for many months.

On the other hand, switching from cooking & serving to cook & chill can help to alleviate the often-stressful working day in kitchens. You no longer produce for the day, but for two or three days in advance.

For this process to work, two conditions must be met.

  1. You must plan your productions precisely, especially about the required volume as well as the use of goods and personnel.
  2. Thermal equipment as well as blast chillers and blast freezers are required. The capacities of both types of equipment must be the same. Furthermore, the cooking and rapid cooling processes must be precisely coordinated with each other.

Only if both factors are present the freshly produced hot meals can be cooled down to below 10° C within 90 minutes without standing time and in compliance with HACCP standards.

To read the entire article, please access your complimentary e-copy of Frozen Food Europe September-October, 2024 issue here.