Blast Freezer – Everything you need to know from HVAC Professionals
Blast freezer is a specially designed freezer room with operating temperature ranging between -25 to -40o C. It is designed to fast-freeze fresh meat, fish, chicken, turkey, or other food items.
Principally, the body or panel thickness of a standard blast freezer ranges between 140 to 200mm thick, and of 40kg/m3 or more, panel density. The kind of door for this application must be as thick as the body panel to reduce or eliminate heat ingress.
For a commercial blast freezers in Nigeria, the type of refrigerant used is of significant factor. The use of 404a Refrigerant Gas is recommended due to its low boiling point and characteristic atmospheric friendliness.
What is Quick Freezing?
This is a rapid freezing of food by exposure to a very low temperature blast of air. Unlike normal freezing, very small ice crystals are formed that do not rupture the food cells, and thus the structure is relatively undamaged and nutritional value is preserved.
Quick-freezing is a two-stage process wherein a product (food) is rapidly cooled by a “blast” of very cold air to a temperature just below 0° C and held there for 2 hours and then rapidly cooled to a temperature between –250 C or lower. The crystal formations within the cellular structure of the food is kept very small by this method, resulting in less cellular damage.
How does an industrial blast freezer work?
A commercial or an industrial blast freezer uses blower fans that push cold air over the surface of food to quickly chill or freeze it. Others can function differently, depending on the blast freezer specifications. Many modern blast freezers in Nigeria may be fitted with trays or conveyor belts that travel around to place foods and also have different freezing compartments.
Blast Freezer Temperature and how long does a blast freezer take to freeze?
A blast freezer’s temperature range varies depending on the manufacturer, but generally it is much cooler than your typical home freezer. The blast freeze cycle demands that food be lowered from +700C to -180C or lower in no more than 240 minutes.
In order to preserve food in the medium-long term, preserving its organoleptic properties, they must be subjected to quick freezing at a temperature as low as -25° C. This freezing process lasts a maximum of 240 minutes.
Blast Freezer vs Blast Chiller: What are the differences?
Blast chilling, a form of cooling used by the food industry to cool down inventories for a short period of time, is very common among businesses all over the world. They are only used if you have food or products, you are going to use within 24 hours.
Blast chillers are ideally suited for food you do not want to freeze, because you are hoping to sell them in a short term. Blast chillers are the way to go when it comes to getting out a steady supply of produce to go at any time of the day especially vegetables, flowers, yoghurt, drinks, unfrozen foods among others.
Unlike blast chillers, blast freezers operate by quickly freezing material to a point where any process of rotting becomes impossible; enhancing the shelf life and nutritional value of the product. The key difference is that blast freezer fast-freezes the product within a short period of time, while blast chiller chills the product to a desired storage temperature within a reasonably period of time.
Applications: How do you blast freeze food or any other items?
Blast freezers are used in almost all food processing facilities such as; poultry farms, yogurt and ice cream production facility or factory, fish and meat processing plants and abattoirs, among others.
Also, blast freezing is a perfect way to prepare a large proportion of products. It is an ideal technique for the commercial catering industry to plan for major events like weddings or conferences weeks in advance.
They are also perfect for getting baked goods easily cooled down after they come out of the oven. Rapid cooling of the food helps preserve the crisp flavor of their crust, and allows them to be served at their optimal temperature. Blast freezers are also used in blood banks for preserving the plasma of the blood.
What are the different types of Blast freezers?
Mini blast freezer:- This is usually a standing model with slim doors. It has limited capacity for few items. It’s not a walk-in freezer. It is manually loaded with items as a very small processing facility with temperature at -25o C.
Commercial Blast freezer:- This is about the most common type in the market. It’s a walk-in model widely used in farms, abattoirs, and other food processing facilities. It’s operating temperature ranges from -25 to -40o C.
Tunnel blast freezer:- This is a specially designed blast freezer with conveyor. The conveyor takes items in and out of the blast freezer. Warm items conveyed in comes out frozen and then bagged or packaged onward to the storage room.
Temperature ranges between -40 to -60o C for a tunnel blast which is applicable in large processing facilities and packaging industries where produce are expected to be frozen within minutes.
This is possible because of the temperature that is extremely low. The use of conveyor that replaces human traffic to and from the blast chamber is also an enormous advantage. Blast freezing temperature is maintained because of the perfect body insulation, standard heat proof door and higher refrigerating unit capacity used.
Shock Blast freezer:- This is another type of specially designed quick freezer designed with a temperature range from -40 to -85o C. This is used mainly in pharmaceutical environment for processing and storage of bio-pharmaceutical products.
Blast freezers for sale in Nigeria
While most manufacturers sell only a standard range at different price points, DeKoolar, in addition to its usual options, also offers customized solutions for all levels of clients, and different applications as well. We have in-house software used in arriving at the right materials needed to satisfy specified custom requirements of every client we supply.
BLAST FREEZERS Prices in Lagos, Nigeria
DeKoolar Blast Series of Freezers and Chillers, in various sizes and for different applications, are renowned for high-quality construction and operational performance by the industry. As Nigeria’s market leader in this product category, visit DeKoolar Blast Freezer Series and blast freezer price list for more on our offerings.
