What factors need to be considered in the selection of quick freezers

What factors need to be considered in the selection of quick freezers

How should food processors choose a freezing system to ensure the best solution and the most suitable business development? When deciding which food freezing process to apply to the food processor’s production line, four types of factors generally need to be considered when selecting a quick freezer: Product quality and capacity requirements, factory management requirements, financial considerations and environmental factors.

　　 One, product quality

　　1, water loss/water content

　　 Whether in the process of food freezing (evaporative product net weight loss) or food thawing (juice loss), all food freezing processes will cause different levels of water loss in food. Especially in meat products, poultry and aquatic products, evaporative net weight loss reduces the net product content and its added value. The slow food freezing process will lead to the production of large ice crystals in the food. When the food is thawed, the cell tissue in the food will rupture and cause the loss of food juice. The loss of food juice will affect the color, taste and nutritional properties of thawed food. Nutrients and natural pigments will be lost with the lost food juices. In most instances, the best way to reduce the evaporative net weight loss of food is to reduce the food temperature as quickly as possible. Rapidly lowering the temperature of the food can correspondingly reduce the vaporization pressure of the free water in the surface of the food, and thereby reduce the dehydration and dry consumption of the food.

　　Research results and related experience show that the rapid food freezing process reduces the loss of moisture and yield, and z* minimizes the changes in product taste, texture, color and flavor. The research conducted by Mr. Agnelli and Mr. Macscheroni on the destructive testing of frozen strawberry products in the freezing process in 2002 showed that when the ultra-low temperature rapid freezing process is used, the strawberry maintains a high compact texture.

　　2, food color

　　 Food freezing process affects the color of thawed food from two aspects. s*As mentioned above, natural pigments are lost with juice when food is thawed; secondly, as ice crystals continue to form during food freezing, the concentration of residual unfrozen food cytosol increases, and the oxidation and enzyme browning of natural pigments accelerate . The slower the food freezing process or the longer it takes to pass the food freezing point, the more significant the impact on the color of the food will be. Agnelli and Mascheroni's research on the color of burgers after freezing and thawing shows that the color of frozen burgers using ultra-low temperature-mechanical freezing process is closer to the original meat color than pure mechanical freezing.

　　 　　3. Fragile and fragile food Due to the equipment design and product processing characteristics, ultra-low temperature food freezing equipment is considered to be suitable for processing fragile and fragile food including many berries. Due to the higher food freezing rate, mechanical impact or ultra-low temperature food freezing equipment can better optimize food quality. However, the application of mechanical impact food freezing equipment is limited to flat foods like hamburgers. The heat exchange is highly related to the direction of airflow. For products that are bulky or uneven, the heat exchange rate is relatively low.

　　 2. Financial considerations

　　 You need to consider a variety of costs to install or add a food freezing system, including the initial investment cost, the operation and labor costs for later operation and maintenance.

　　 1. Capital investment and operating costs

　　 There is a clear difference between ultra-low temperature food freezing and mechanical type. The former has higher operating costs, while the latter requires a large initial capital investment. For a given production line, there is always a critical point, and the accumulated operating costs of ultra-low temperature food freezing process will begin to exceed that of mechanical food freezing process. It is worth noting that under the current economic conditions, financial investment will be more difficult. Food processors are unable or unwilling to make major capital investments. Therefore, the advantage may be biased towards ultra-low temperature food freezing.

　　2, labor cost

　　Because the mechanical type is bulky and complex, it tends to require more manpower for cleaning, and the maintenance requirements are also high, requiring highly skilled maintenance personnel. The importance of these factors will depend on the type of food freezing device and the corresponding local labor cost level.

　　3, product quality

　　As mentioned earlier, the smallest water loss is the key to the best food quality and value. This is especially true for high value-added products. Therefore, the choice of food freezing process will affect the financial returns of food processors. Therefore, customers must consider all financial factors when choosing between ultra-low temperature food freezing and mechanical. Related equipment suppliers can assist food processors to investigate and determine the total cost of each food freezing process in a specific long period of time.

　　 Three, environmental factors

　　 The United States Federal Food and Beverage Machine Structure and the International Carbon Alliance have assessed that only 10% of the energy consumption in the entire food industry chain comes from food processing companies, and about 60% of it comes from the refrigeration systems of large frozen food processors. Although the mechanical type requires lower energy consumption than the ultra-low temperature food freezing system, the energy consumption of the two technologies only accounts for a small proportion of the total energy consumption in the food industry chain.

　　 Obviously, choosing a food freezing process is not a simple matter. No single food freezing process is the best choice for all food processors. The advantage of the ultra-low temperature food freezing system is that it can adapt to a series of freezing rate requirements of various types of food to improve its product quality. Mechanical food freezing systems require a large amount of capital investment, but there may be long-term financial returns. The impact food freezing process actually narrows the gap between the mechanical and ultra-low temperature food freezing process to some extent, but it has limited advantages for specific food types.

　　 4. Factory management

　　When choosing a food freezing process, you must pay attention to the special circumstances of each food processing plant. Considerations include the size of available space, the range of production capacity requirements, sanitation requirements, cleaning and maintenance operations. In almost all instances, under the same level of production capacity, ultra-low temperature food freezing takes up less space than traditional mechanical methods. When the capacity is 500kg/h, the former only requires 6.4m2, while the latter requires 19.5m2. Due to its small footprint, adaptability to changes in production capacity, application of different types of food, simplicity, and low initial investment in fixed assets, ultra-low temperature food freezing equipment is more suitable for most food processors.