Now in any supermarket you can find a huge amount of frozen convenience foods, vegetables and fruits. Many products are frozen: fish, meat, confectionery, bakery, even first and second courses.
What is the advantage of freezing?
Why did chilled convenience foods come into fashion? First of all, it is very convenient for both buyers and manufacturers. People without too much time can prepare a good and tasty dish. As for the producers, frozen products are very profitable for them. No need to spend money on a large number of personnel, and there are practically no unsold goods, which means that losses are reduced and income is growing. Shock freezing is currently used to cool products. What it is?
Shock freezing of products
What is this kind of storage so good for? The fact is that during normal cooling, water molecules turn into crystals. The faster the freezing process itself occurs, the smaller these crystals will be. Why is it important? Yes, because only with microscopic crystals of water, the molecules of the products do not collapse at all.
Such freezing is carried out in special devices. They are called shock freezers. Products are cooled in them at a temperature of -40 degrees Celsius. This allows you to freeze the core of vegetables or fruits in just two hundred and forty minutes. Due to this, the structure of the products remains the same. After thawing them, there is no liquid loss effect, neither taste nor texture changes.
The benefits of shock freezing
The shock freezer cabinet in comparison with traditional refrigerators allows:
- Reduce product loss by several times.
- Reduce the freezing period to ten times.
- Halve production area by half.
- Reduce staff by thirty percent.
- To reduce the payback period by twenty percent.
Product structure
Shock freezing is, first of all, a high cooling rate. The temperature in the chamber reaches minus thirty-five degrees. This allows the product to quickly pass from the liquid phase to the solid. In this case, small crystals are formed, and cell tissue remains intact. As a result of this, the properties of the fresh product are preserved, in contrast to the usual freezing.
The technology of shock freezing allows not to use thermal and chemical processing of products. As a result of this, the type of proteins does not change at all, and therefore the biochemistry of substances remains unchanged. The low temperature of shock freezing and the very speed of the process reduce the activity of environmental bacteria. With slow cooling, berries, fruits and vegetables may leave traces of bacteria. Shock freezing virtually eliminates the development of a similar effect.
Mass of products
With a prolonged freezing process, weight loss of products occurs. This happens due to the evaporation of the liquid. Usually lost up to ten percent. Shock freezing has a forced cooling rate that reduces moisture loss by up to one percent. The difference is palpable.
Do tastes change?
Since the product does not dry out during quick freezing, the nutritional and aromatic properties are practically not lost. This means that the nutritional and taste qualities remain the same.
Storage time
Products chilled using the shock method have a longer shelf life than frozen products in conventional freezers.In addition, they are able to hold all qualities for a longer time. It should be noted that quick freezing is the best way to harvest for the winter.
Frozen Foods Popularity
Quick-frozen semi-finished products, products and ready meals have gained immense popularity all over the world. Their production is increasing every year. The range of products that are frozen all over the world is unusually wide. Moreover, each country is engaged in the production of those fruits and vegetables or semi-finished products that are characteristic of a given region, climate, and traditions.
Currently, the range of frozen products consists of:
- Vegetables, fruits, berries, melons, herbs, and various mixes of them.
- Ready second and first courses, pies, confectionery and bakery products.
- Fish and meat semi-finished products: steaks, entrecotes, meatballs, hamburgers, dumplings, sticks, dumplings, sausages.
- Juices, desserts, jellies, puddings, ice cream, etc.
The popularity of frozen foods is due to several reasons:
- Easy storage and quick availability if necessary.
- Cooking does not take much time.
- Good taste.
- The product is packaged and dosed.
- No additional preparation is required (e.g. peeling or cutting).
- Almost the entire product is edible (except packaging).
Business
The technology of shock freezing provides completely new opportunities for activity. We can say that the business environment is becoming more comfortable. When using this technology, the number of losses is significantly reduced. Moreover, the timing of the sale of the same agricultural products is significantly increasing, and the place of processing may be located in a completely different region.
The product can be sold in different places and even countries. There is no limit to the seasonality of the goods. In addition, the sale may be delayed in order to wait for a better price. At first, the frozen food market in Russia consisted of imported raw materials. And now, priorities have gradually shifted towards domestic producers.
Freezing equipment
Speaking of quick freezing, you need to understand that it is possible only with special equipment. The advantage of this technique is a quick payback. Shock freezer cabinet allows you to cool convenience foods, vegetables, fruits.
The equipment for freezing is different. It is divided into the following types:
- Fluidization apparatuses intended for freezing small raw materials from vegetables and fruits, berries, soup mixes and stews. It is possible to cool small fish, shrimp, mushrooms. This type of equipment has the highest freezing speed, which means that it retains the best quality products.
- Conveyor cabinets are used to freeze fish, meat, flour, dairy semi-finished products, as well as ready-made dishes: puff pastry, pancakes, meatballs, steaks, dumplings and dumplings.
- Cradles freeze packaged semi-finished fish and poultry meat, meatballs, steaks, pastries, main and second courses.
- Spiral freezers are designed to cool portioned products from vegetables, fruits, meat and fish, breaded semi-finished products.
Convenience Freezing
Since semi-finished products are especially popular among consumers, the shock freezing of dumplings, dumplings, pasties, pancakes, make up a significant share of production.
However, a new type of activity appeared. The frozen food market has replenished with semi-finished bakery products. Baking from frozen billets is very popular and in demand. There are more than a hundred items in stock. These are buns with additives, and baguettes, and bread. Such foods need only a little warm before eating. The taste of frozen bakery products does not differ from just baked.
Experts in this field claim that such bread is made from natural products, they do not have special additives. The correct technology for the production of bakery products from blanks makes it possible to obtain a crispy and tasty product. Naturally, obtaining good frozen semi-finished products is possible only with the availability of high-quality and proper equipment.
