What kind of food products do you make?
We produce pastry products, including several variations of meat pies and sausage rolls, as well as samosas, curry puffs, spring rolls and pasties.
Where are your food products produced and sold?
From our central production kitchen, we sell through several of our own retail bakery outlets, and also have a network of food service & take away venues that stock our products.
Please explain your refrigeration processes prior to using a blast chiller?
We have a large walk in coolroom, which we would place our cooked product in. This did the job for a period of time, but once the business grew and our production hit certain levels, the cool room would be half full of warm product, and was taking a significant amount of time to cool the product down.
And although in the design/fit-out stage of my kitchen, I had the coolroom beefed up to cope with warm product, it was starting to struggle, which also started affecting other chilled product in my cool room. My power use also became excessive, so it became clear that to maintain this level of production, and indeed for the business to keep growing, I needed to explore other options.
What were your reasons for choosing to install AFINOX Blast Chillers?
Blast Chilling offered an economical answer to my problems that fitted seamlessly into my kitchen processes, able to fit my existing oven trolleys. With a bit of rearranging in my kitchen, I was able to find a location where I could easily transfer my cooked product into the Blast Chillers, and then into my coolroom for storage/distribution.
After investigating several options, I went with two units of AFINOX’s 40T (7.5HP) Blast Chiller & Shock Freezer, as they offered a high quality European made machine, with a high ambient rating, that was easy to use and at the right price.
How has using blast chillers changed your business?
Now I have the ability to quickly chill my food, I've actually been able to significantly increase my production. Previously, I would have to wait until I had storage space available in my coolroom, for warm product, but now, I can Blast Chill my products, and then either place them directly in my cool room, or send them directly out to sites for sale.
I can also now accept urgent orders, whereas previously, I would not have had the capacity to cook, chill and deliver in the time frame required.
It is also very favorable that I can promote to my customers that my products are blast chilled, over competitors who don't use such equipment.
And what has using blast chillers done for your products?
My products are now able to keep longer than previously, having been rapidly cooled, which means that I can dispatch larger quantities to my distributors and retail outlets, less frequently, saving me on delivery costs.
Also, the product quality is much better, and seems much fresher once reheated at the point of sale.
What would you say to Food Production/Service Companies that are considering using blast chillers?
It's something I wish I did some time ago. So just take the plunge, and do it! Even if you’re remotely curious about it, just invest a bit of time to investigate it further.
It can be a significant investment, but it's something that will reap benefits throughout many areas of your business, creating labour, power & time savings, and delivering improved product quality. It's the only piece of equipment that will actually pay for itself many times over.
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