AUTOMATION INCREASES FOOD SAFETY IN LABOR-SAVING LINES
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail frozen food sector has witnessed a drastic increase in sales which is expected to maintain at a high level.
Food Safety has become even more crucial. New inquiries require “no hand touch” operation of processing lines. During stockpiling stage, the frozen section in supermarkets were often empty, and new deliveries were sold out fast.
Even if the pandemic situation will be over in a month like in China and South Korea, it is not very qualified to guess that we will have a future increase in retail in the time to come. North European processors discuss investing in new IQF lines already for the next season due to expected growth in retail. We live in a different world today compared to how it was three months ago.
If the Cold Chain is unbroken and modern equipment is used, quality is close to fresh (you can never compete with products direct picked from the garden but often compete with products bought at the fresh market as they often have day or days transportation time. Out of season, there is only frozen to choose.
OctoFrost IQF Processing Lines
Green vegetables, many fruits, raw seafood are either fully blanched (+73°C to 85°C where water or steam always is well over +73°C) or flash blanched with hot water to kill surface bacteria. The heat treatment is followed by a swift chilling to capture texture and color on products. Water temperature in our rainfall chillers is 1-3°C, which is safe under the critical +6°C you have in the fridge.
Some berries and fruits cannot be blanched, where a light chlorine treatment before freezing is well proven and accepted.
Nearly all products can be randomly fed to the line and are spread with a shaker or water flumes, or tedder for leafy products. This also means significant labor-saving. A complete line only needs 2-3 operators.
OctoFrost IQF Processing Lines offer new challenging food safety business opportunities. Our lines are designed for “no hand touch” after heat treatment.
We design the complete processing line and have the control that there shall be no need for manual intervention.
We can offer three complete food-safe processing lines
Universal Vegetable Line
For most vegetables including herbs and spinach.
Asparagus Line
All belts are at the same level. Long and thin asparagus are transported through the freezer without any drop.
OctoFrost complete Shrimp Cooker, Chiller and Freezer Line
With Weighing Belt for even feeding. Key feature is to have total control over temperatures to avoid overcooking and loss of proteins.
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