Higher Standards Drive Freezing Technology
Freezing bakery products allows such items to have a controlled-temperature shelf life of 6 months to 18 months, by preventing the movement of the water contained in the product, turning the water into ice crystals, thereby inhibiting microbiological degradation of food.
It is the most practical and efficient form of production, consumption and storage that reaches the final consumption area without any physical deformation unless the cold chain network is broken from production to storage and then from shipment to storage conditions.
Freezing of bakery products is also one of the best ways to reduce costs and increase sales. Freezing, which stops yeast action in doughs and reduces quality deterioration of baked products, allows bakers to produce a stabilized inventory of products. This enables the economies of large-scale production; allows bakers to have a supply of their products at all times without risking large losses from staling due to the inability to accurately forecast daily sales, and, if the products are distributed and sold in a frozen state, favors less frequent delivery of products. Furthermore, this technology may also increase sales by making it possible for consumers to purchase a wider variety and new forms of bakery products in the grocery store.
The selling of frozen dough, for example, is becoming increasingly popular.
Recent enhancements in refrigeration technologies take into consideration requirements such as energy savings, ease of access and use, high performance and cost-savings, among some of the most prominent demands from food processors.
Making Food Processing More Sustainable and Safer
JBT will be attending IFFA 2022, where the manufacturer will demonstrate how it can support companies in creating and growing their product portfolio and boost their performance using automation, connectivity, and IoT and how to make food processing more sustainable and safer. As such, JBT will showcase their revolutionary self-stacking spiral freezing technology and introduce next steps in spiral freezing with the new Frigoscandia GYRoCOMPACT® 70 Spiral Freezer. Enhanced food safety, performance and optimization are the key technologies in their latest spiral freezer. The new freezer is more compact than any of its predecessors, yet offers up to 20% increased capacity. Over the past 60 years, Frigoscandia has been supplying food processors with the world’s leading technology to efficiently, safely, and economically freeze almost every type of food product. Today JBT’s Frigoscandia freezers meet the needs of a truly global industry. In fact, more than half of the world’s rapidly growing production of frozen foods passes through JBT´s freezers, according to company representatives. “The cutting and portioning of the product is also a process that can significantly reduce food waste and increase yield. Manual cutting is labor-intensive and prone to inefficiency, potential contamination, and higher food waste. The goal is to use every part of the incoming product so nothing goes to waste. Our intelligent DSI waterjet cutting- and portioning system is the automated alternative that, in addition to decreasing labor cost, has proven to improve product yield and increase productivity consistently,” JBT representatives explain.
You can read the rest of this article in the March-April issue of European Baker & Biscuit magazine, which you can access by clicking here.