Blast chillers are specialised refrigeration units offering commercial kitchens faster chilling and freezing capabilities than standard units. However, they should not be seen as a replacement for normal refrigerators and freezers; rather they are a complimentary appliance.
While standard fridges and freezers are designed for food storage, the express purpose of a blast chiller is express chilling, though they generally have some form of basic refrigeration mode.
A blast freezer can turn hot food into cold food – 160 C to 38 C – in less than 90 minutes. Blast chilled prepared food can then be safely stored for up to five days. Shock frozen cooked food can be stored for even longer. Foods that can be blast chilled include; vegetables, baked goods and meats.
Why would a commercial kitchen buy a blast freezer? Any kitchen wanting to prepare food in advance can use a blast freezer to ensure it retains its freshness and flavour, not to mention its bacteria-free healthiness.
Blast chillers give commercial kitchens hard and soft chilling options customisable to suit the type of food and its cooling/freezing requirements.
While a normal fridge or freezer evaporates moisture to chill or freeze, a blast chiller forms microcrystals on food. Blast chilled items can then be stored for up to 5 days, even longer for shock frozen items.
Many blast chillers come with two chilling compartments, a great option for cooling two different food items at the same time. Two compartments also save power if only half the unit is being chilled.
Unfortunately not. In most cases, food chilled or shock frozen in a blast chiller is immediately removed and stored in a standard refrigerator or freezer. While that might not seem ideal on first impression, all produce undergoing this process of blast chiller to fridge or freezer will have a significantly longer shelf life than produce chilled or frozen by standard methods.
The cheapest, most basic blast chillers are around $3,000 and the most featured and sophisticated units are more than $72,000. A perfectly decent unit will cost about $16,000.
Like any fridge, blast chillers have seals that can become cracked and reduce efficiency, exhausts and air intakes that suffer from obstructed airflow, and surfaces that will set spills solid and harbour bacteria if not kept clean.
As with any commercial appliance tasked with the critical role of food storage, a blast chiller must be kept in pristine condition. That means maintaining a strict upkeep regime.
Here are some ongoing blast chiller maintenance tips.
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