Blast chillers for the commercial kitchen: the complete guide
A Blast Chiller (sometimes also known as a shock freezer, blast freezer or rapid freezer) is something every professional kitchen needs to be ensure adherence to existing food hygiene regulations and maintain the quality of food. By reducing food temperatures significantly faster than in standard refrigeration, a blast chiller ensures dishes retain their taste, texture and nutritional value when and after being cooled.
Here is a guide to everything there is to know about blast chillers and the cooling process they offer.
How does a professional blast chiller work?
The blast chilling process allows you to cool or freeze food and reduce the risk of bacteria spread thus making dishes safe for storage and later consumption. Bacteria, in fact, tend to be rife and multiply faster in temperature between +8 °C and +68 °C. Blast chillers cool food very quickly by rapidly blowing cold air over it and reducing the temperature of cooked or heated food within 90 minutes.
What is a blast chiller used for?
Blast chillers are specifically designed to cool down bulk quantities of food quickly and effectively in a temperature-controlled environment, ensuring that food quality is preserved by reducing the spread of bacteria – saving a lot of time and preventing food from going to waste. They have different settings which can be selected depending on the initial temperature of the food, that is, whether it is room temperature, chilled or hot. Moreover, by quickly cooling food, restaurateurs ensure that newly cooled food does not compromise other chilled foods already in refrigeration.
This fast-cooling process is typically used in professional kitchens as it guarantees compliance with existing international and local health and safety regulations for food preservation and serving, thus making this appliance an essential item in every commercial kitchen.
The blast chilling temperature
A typical blast chiller usually has a chilling cycle time which brings food from +70 °C to +3 °C within 90 minutes. When the technology of the blast chiller is combined with that of a blast freezer, as in the case of the Electrolux Professional SkyLine ChillS models, the appliance is able to further cool food to a freezing temperature of -18 °C; the whole process lasting around 240 minutes in total. The blast freeze option, called X-freeze cycle, involves the air in the cavity being lowered in temperature from +10 °C to -41 °C and it is ideal for freezing all kind of foods, raw, half and fully cooked down to approximately -20 °C in a short amount of time.
There are two types of chilling: hard and soft. Soft chilling is a gentler process that ensures delicate products, such as fish, fruit and vegetables, do not develop ice crystals. Hard chilling is suitable for denser foods such as meat and lasagne.
Benefits of blast chilling
Quickly reducing food temperature ensures that any bacteria that remain after the cooking process will have limited time to reproduce at a dangerous rate. Chilling in less than 90 minutes provides a safer shelf life for products, therefore adhering to existing compliance regulations.
Cleaning and maintenance
Blast chillers need daily cleaning and maintenance. It is important to wash the external surfaces with warm, soapy water while avoiding the use of detergents containing abrasive substances, steel wool, brushes or steel scrapers which may damage them. The surface should be rinsed thoroughly with a damp cloth and dried carefully. The control panel should be cleaned with a soft cloth dampened with water and, if necessary, with neutral detergent, but never using direct or high-pressure jets of water.
How to choose the right blast chiller
Given the broad range of commercial refrigeration products, it is strongly recommended that restaurateurs choose the cooling appliances most suited to their needs while avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach.
A blast chiller should be chosen by selecting the required capacity, size and efficiency required in the professional kitchen. Awareness of existing health and safety regulations, as well as the Minimum Energy performance Standards (MEPs) would be another factor determining the choice of product to certify adherence to the requirements. Electrolux Professional has a wide range of blast chiller-freezers among which you can find exactly the one you need.