When it comes to food preservation, cold storage isn’t the only choice. “Individual quick freezing,” or IQF, is another alternative. And what exactly is IQF? And what is the difference between IQF and blast freezer room?
What Is Blast freezer room and How Does It Work?
As we all know, Blast freezer room is the method of choice in the industry.
Because it is particularly effective at freezing large amounts of foods. Not just that, but it’s also suited for bigger items like the whole chickens, tuna fish, seafoods or other meats.
Food goods will be placed in a cold storage unit until they are completely frozen. and it normally takes a long time to complete.
What Is IQF? and How Does It Work?
As the name suggests, IQF freezes foods individually instead of all together. This is also known as flash-freezing. Usually, it’s used for smaller food products, like cheese, seafoods, fruit cuts, vegetables, pasta, etc.
with IQF, foods are rapidly frozen to speed up the frozen process. This results in fewer ice crystals, which could ensure the best quality of your frozen foods.
The Benefits of IQF and Blast freezer room
Below, we’ll compare different aspects of IQF and Blast freezer room, You’ll get to learn the key differences between these two solutions.
There is a reduction of time required.
It takes a long time to freeze items in a Blast freezer. IQF, on the other hand, uses a freezer with a fluidized bed that moves the food items in a thermodynamic way. As a result, the foods freeze faster to the core.
Color Retention is Improved
Blast freezer room frozen foods, particularly meat, have a grey appearance after defrosting.
At first glance, frozen items from the blast freezer appear to have a more bright color. When you defrost them, however, they soon lose their color and turn gray.
IQF prevents discoloration because the quick-freezing process preserves the natural qualities of the product and causes little to no spoilage. When IQF foods are thawed, they take on a more natural color.
Nutrient Retention is Better
Ice crystals are usually always present during the refrigeration and freezing process, which will affect the molecular structure of the food. In most cases, it will destroy the nutrients.
However, in IQF, the original molecular structure of the food will be preserved, which means that the nutrients naturally present in it will be better preserved.
Higher food quality
The high amount of dehydration is one of the key drawbacks of blast freezer room. Dehydration is considerably decreased by using IQF technology.
Ice crystals cause drip loss as you defrost items from blast freezer room. This removes moisture from the food, which is therefore lost after defrost.
As a result, the food’s natural texture and quality may be lost.
There is no deformation.
When various food items are frozen together, it can be difficult to separate them. If you succeed in tearing them apart, they may be damaged and/or deformed. This can result in a loss of yield.
Throughout the IQF process, items freeze faster and separate from each other, making it impossible for them to stick together and remain that way until the first thaw.
Less manpower required
For blast freezer room, you’ll need a lot of labor to move boxes and trays around, as well as cleaning and storing them. Also, if the food is frozen in blocks, mechanical separation is required.
There are more than above, however, both blast freezer room and IQF has its advantages. If you have requirements for food fast freezing, please feel free to contact us, we will give professional solution and advise.