Whether you’re preparing salads, ice cream or meaty dishes, you will need to keep these meals at the right temperature to maintain the quality and consistency of your ingredients. Here’s a list of the top benefits of relying on blast chilling to achieve this.

1. Creates Optimal Food Safety

When you’re preparing food, it’s essential to keep your kitchen as cool as possible. This is because bacteria doubles every 15 to 20 minutes when it’s left out on a counter in a kitchen that’s hotter than 35° C. This is commonly referred to as the danger zone, and food left in this heat can quickly spoil and cause food poisoning. 

While a blast chiller won’t cool your kitchen down, it will cool your ingredients or prepared dishes down to a safe temperature in a matter of minutes. The average blast chiller can reduce your food’s core temperature by 3 degrees in under 90 minutes. By adjusting the temperature setting, your flash freezer will go down to -18° C in less than 240 minutes. All you have to do is place your food or ingredients into the chiller as soon as it’s prepared. 

2. Allows for Improved Food Quality

When you traditionally freeze food, you are left with a frozen mass. Defrosting or thawing causes food to lose its texture, nutrient content, flavours and colours. The hawing process can also leave your food soggy. 

Blast chilling ensures that this doesn’t happen. Food doesn’t freeze into an ice block and also doesn’t have ice crystals forming on it. This means that there’s no freezer burn or sogginess. Since your food and ingredients are just cooled, they can easily be warmed or cooked without losing their flavour or fresh appearance. This is an effective way to ensure that your food is always consistent, keeping your customers coming back for more. 

3. Reduces Potential Food Wastage

Whether you’re cooking for five or 50 people, you’ll know that one spoiled ingredient can ruin your whole dish. In some cases, food left out on a kitchen counter in a hot kitchen can result in a lot of it getting thrown out. This is especially the case with fresh produce or dairy ingredients.

A blast chiller increases your food’s potential shelf life by keeping it cool and fresh. Since nothing develops freezer burn, you can store anything from fresh produce to prepared pasta and casserole dishes well in advance. With this feature, you can also prepare sauces, marinades, and desserts hours before they’re needed. Another plus point is that you can cool drinks such as wine, cocktails, and even milk without risking spoilage or freezing.  

4. Flexibility Creates Better Time Management

Using a blast chiller allows you and your team to better plan your meal services. You can either cook and prepare ingredients in advance, knowing they will be safe and fresh if cooled overnight. Alternatively, you may decide to prepare your ingredients closer to service because you won’t need hours to get them cooled. Adding flexibility to your day allows everyone to be more productive.