Shock freezers will help to keep fresh food for a long time. In the cold place vegetables, berries, herbs from summer to winter. Scientists have noticed that if a sharp cooling is carried out, then after thawing the products have a fresh taste.
Positive aspects of the storage method
Shock freezing devices are widely used due to the preservation of important properties of products after thawing. Other methods do not provide optimal product qualities. Taste, smell change. Structural transformations often occur.
Shock freezing devices also retain:
- appearance;
- physical qualities: elasticity, cell integrity;
- and, most importantly, all vitamins and minerals.
Instant freezing on the quality of food preservation is at a position higher than other methods. In comparison, common canning changes the look and many vitamins are lost. And with prolonged cooling, structural changes often cannot be avoided.
Using a shock freezer cabinet, it is impossible to preserve the original freshness of products. But this method provides the most harmless storage that is known today. Many manufacturers often use it to move vegetables, meat, berries over great distances without losing their quality.
Cooling principle
A shock freezer cabinet is often used to preserve summer vegetables. They all love to eat in late autumn, winter and early spring. This device is installed in the trading floors of catering establishments, restaurants.
The shock freezing chamber has a powerful radiator of cold and fans. As the name suggests, the process takes no more than a few minutes. Due to this, more than 90% of the useful properties of the products are preserved.
With slow cooling, the water molecules of vegetables, berries and other fresh products are converted into large crystals, which practically break the microstructures. This does not happen with shock freezing. Particles freeze in small forms and melt without changing the composition of the cells.
Models of devices for sale
More often the equipment for shock freezing belongs to the professional. Manufacturers offer volume chambers from 80 kg and above. In domestic conditions, such capacity is not required. After all, this is comparable to the volume of the entire refrigerator. While the freezer occupies a third and rarely half of the used space.
Equipment is divided according to the principle of action:
- tunneling - products move along the conveyor scheme;
- standard - in the form of an ordinary closed chamber.
Within 15 minutes, vegetables and fruits are frozen at a temperature of minus 40 degrees. This method has been used since ancient times by the Eskimos. True, for them this is the only method of storing meat and fish.
Now, shock freezing is used by fast food manufacturers. Chilled products are processed by heating for 3 minutes, they look perfect and taste like fresh. Since 1925, manufacturers from all over the world have successfully used this technique to produce frozen food products.
Optional equipment
The standard version includes a chamber where freezing takes place directly. In addition, ultraviolet emitters are built into the equipment for disinfection. Some models can be equipped with stainless steel baking sheets.
The control can be manual or with automatic adjustment of the cooling temperature. Devices can be supplemented with transportation lines. To track the number of products at the inlet and outlet, weighing equipment is installed.
The freezing process can be fully automated. To do this, you need to equip the equipment with a programmable controller. Accordingly, each additional item increases the cost of the final equipment.
Quality control
Products frozen by the shock method can be found on sale. However, it is necessary to check the quality of the purchased goods, which could be violated during transportation or under inappropriate storage conditions. You can determine the correct freezing by touch - inside the package, vegetables or berries should not be glued.
Ice balls and lumps should not form with proper shock freezing. If we assume that the main cooling was successful, but there are still lumps, then there was an unexpected thawing in the warehouses. All these shortcomings after will affect the taste of berries, vegetables or meat.
When feeling, a quality product should be crumbly, each piece should have standard sizes, and ice should not be present. With shock freezing, microscopic crystals form. It is impossible to probe them. Hand should be determined solid vegetables in the package.
To implement the simplest business idea, the shock freezer is the best suited. The price of a simple freezer starts from 100 thousand rubles. There are cheaper options, but their performance is too low to be used on an industrial scale.
According to consumer reviews, the cost of a normal cabinet is about 200 thousand rubles. Shock freezing is the best preparation method for storing carrots, cabbage, and other vegetables. The quality of products is affected by the reliability of the freezer. Therefore, it is worth trusting the positively proven equipment suppliers.
General principles for preparing products before cooling
Before the shock freezing, vegetables must be processed. Be sure to carry out several stages of cleaning. The ideal form is cubes with a diagonal of no more than 2 cm.
In an even layer, vegetables pass through the chamber at a temperature of minus 40 degrees. With this thickness, it is possible to achieve high performance without increasing the capacity of the cooler. According to customers, small pieces are more convenient to use immediately in the cooking process without additional waste of time for their preliminary defrosting.
Thus, beets, broccoli, green bean pods are processed. Similarly, carrots and mushrooms are frozen. On the shelves of shops you can find more exotic root vegetables, berries. Thanks to the shock method of cooling, it is now possible to deliver various products from distant countries almost fresh.
However, stringent requirements are imposed on storage conditions. One defrost - and the quality of freshness will be lost forever. Shelf life while maintaining the technology parameters is limited to a year from the moment of freezing at a temperature of no higher than -18 degrees.
Some models
On sale there are refrigerators with quick-freeze chambers for the home. One of these is the Liebherr model CN 3913. This option is suitable for storing berries and vegetables in a 150-liter chamber. The temperature rises to -38 degrees. According to customer reviews, this is one of the often bought models. It is convenient to use also by the fact that the main camera is separated from the common space.
But for the convenience of quick freezing, many advise you to purchase a separate cabinet, and store frozen berries in an ordinary freezer. More cost-effective refrigeration options with a similar function are available. For example, Electrolux EUF 23391W. According to consumer reviews, this device does a good job of preserving fresh berries and fruits.
The freezing temperature in the Electrolux refrigerator drops to -35 degrees. To exclude bacterial reproduction, such freezers are recommended to periodically thaw and treat the internal surfaces with antiseptics.