Lawrence Walton
If you run a food storage company that stores and supplies fresh ingredients across the country, then you might be wondering whether it’s worth investing in blast chillers for your stock. Since modular blast freezers cost more than regular freezers, what are the benefits of owning these appliances in your warehouse?
There are many differences between these two types of freezers, and many of them will affect the quality of your food. Whether you supply meat, dairy products or fruits and vegetables, modular commercial blast freezers will significantly improve the quality, texture, and flavour of your ingredients.
In high-volume industries, even slight changes in product quality can influence customer satisfaction and business success. This is where blast freezers become essential tools, allowing suppliers to meet strict food safety standards while delivering top-quality products.
Here are 7 key differences between regular freezers and blast chiller freezers.
The Bacterial “Danger Zone”
Fresh food has what’s referred to as the “danger zone”. This is where food has the potential to degrade, exposing it to bacterial decomposition. This process is the start of the food going rotten, and can severely affect the quality and nutritional value of fresh ingredients.
Modular blast chillers freeze food extremely quick, so it shortens the time where food has the risk of entering this “danger zone”. The danger zone temperature is between 5 and 60 degrees Celsius, and blast chillers cool down food quickly enough to preserve your stock from entering this precarious temperature range.
Perfect for Cooked Food
Cooked food also runs the danger of going off, and many food suppliers distribute ready-made meals that only need to be warmed up by the eventual consumer. This may include microwave meals, cured pork products, ready-made pizzas, and more.
Blast chillers are specially designed to cater to cooked (or partially cooked) food, keeping it fresh. By blast-freezing these foods, the chiller ensures that the flavour, texture, and nutritional value of the food is preserved. That’s because freezing is done much quicker than what regular freezers are able to do.
Quicker Freezing Time
Regular freezers may take hours to adequately freeze foods. During this process, the food will undergo slight changes which may compromise its quality in various ways. This may include the texture of the food (losing its crunch or substance), and releasing liquid when it is thawed out.
Modular blast chillers greatly shorten the time between the food entering the unit and the temperature of the food reaching freeze temperatures. This means your food comes out almost as good as it went in once it is thawed, preserving overall quality.
Adjustable Temperatures for Thawing
The thawing process of frozen food is just as important as the freezing process. Freezing should be done fast, while thawing should be done slowly. This is not possible with regular freezers, since the appliance is only able to freeze food and keep it frozen.
Blast chillers allow you to adjust the temperature, enabling you to keep larger quantities of stock and deliver them to your customers as and when you need to. You want your food items to retain as many of their characteristics as possible, and blast chillers help you do exactly that.
Electricity Usage
What about the amount of electricity used by blast chillers? You may have heard that these appliances use more power to more or less what regular freezers do. Well, it’s true that blast chillers use more electricity, but this freezing of your food stock is controlled.
Regular freezers run on a consistent amount of energy, putting food items into a deep freeze state whether they’ve been in for a long time or not. Blast chillers use shorter bursts of high energy to regulate the freezing temperature of food, meaning you save on electricity costs in the long term—especially if you’re freezing ingredients for an extended period of time.
Freezing Hot Food
When hot food is rapidly frozen, it retains its flavour much better than slower freezing. Blast chillers are perfect for hot food chilling because the process of getting that food to zero degrees Celsius is faster. Regular freezers are not designed to freeze hot food, and the quality of their contents will suffer compromise due to the delay in the freezing process.
Soft Chilling
Delicate foods require what’s referred to as “soft chilling”, meaning the food undergoes a more moderate form of freezing. Regular freezers can only offer extreme freezing cycles, whereas blast chillers allow you to adjust the freezing temperature to accommodate these delicate ingredients.
Food storage companies and suppliers will do well to invest in multiple blast chillers which can be used for various types of food so that quality is respectably maintained for each one. Since regular freezers are only good for low-temperature freezing, blast chillers are definitely a better way to go.
Final Thoughts
Customers are sure to notice quality differences in the food you supply them with. Invest in blast chillers as a way to keep your clients happy and maintain consistency in what you deliver to them.
This is one way you can remain professional and beat your competition when it comes to food delivery to restaurants, markets, supermarkets, and consumers. Whether it’s fresh produce, ready-cooked meals, meat, or dairy, blast chillers maintain the quality of your products and ensure consistent repeat business in an ever-changing market.
