Cooling and Freezing
Process description
Cooling and freezing are important applications in many stages of the fish processing procedure. Compliance with the maximum permitted temperatures is regulated by law. Many products are intermediately cooled before they undergo the next production step: chilled before they are sliced, or frozen to be subsequently placed in the warehouse or sold.
The cooling and freezing of food products occurs at various points in the manufacturing process. Depending on the product, time and space capacities, this can be done continuously or batch wise. The objectives of the cooling process can be varied: for the hardening of product surfaces, for cooling above the freezing point or for the freezing of the products.
Messer solution
A high freezing rate of more than 5 cm/h is achieved with liquid nitrogen (LN2) or liquid carbon dioxide (LCO2) as a freezing medium, so that the cell structure of the frozen food is preserved through the fine-crystalline freezing of the water portion. This means that after defrosting no losses in cell liquid content occur. A further advantage is the prevention of dehydration and thus undesirable weight loss during the freezing process through rapid freezing of the product surface.
In general, a distinction can be made between batch freezers and continuous freezers. One example of batch freezers is freezing cabinets, which are operated with liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide. Continuous cryogenic frost equipment includes tunnel freezers, spiral freezers and rotary tube freezers.
Advantages:
- Higher product turnover through short freezing times
- High quality of frozen products
- No dehydration losses
- Fast operation through rapid cooling of plants
- Low investment costs
- Takes up little space
- Long plant
- Low maintenance and repair costs (simple plant construction)
Messer has an extensive range of different freezer types on offer.