Intensive Chilling and Freezing in One System

TECHNOLOGY (MP57)

For products such as bacon, which need to be sliced while frozen, there is often a gap between intensive chilling and freezing. Schr?ter offers the perfect solution for this: its SEMIjet? system concept with two cooling zones.

SEMIjet? semi-continuous systems often consist of a cooking zone (with or without an optional smoking function) and an intensive chilling zone. A fully automated conveyor system transports the product from one zone to another within the system. In the intensive chilling zone, products to which heat has been applied are cooled down for the subsequent process. The benefits are fairly obvious: a fast, uniformly-controlled cooling process with low weight loss.

Thanks to its two cooling zones, the SEMIjet? offers a seamless transition between intensive chilling and deep-freezing.

Ideal Bacon Slicing

In many cases, products are cooled down to their packaging temperature. This calls for core temperatures between +2 °C and +4 °C, depending on the product. The subsequent slicing process often requires temperatures as low as –8 °C, however – especially in the case of bacon. This is because, depending on the salt content, fully formed crystalline structures are predominantly present in this temperature range, which cause the product to become solid. Correspondingly low temperatures ensure both a high-quality slice and a long service life of the cutting tools. Further reducing the temperature, however, leads to solidification – the product becomes too hard and this has negative consequences with respect to the two above process parameters.

SEMIjet? with Two Cooling Zones

In order to cool bacon to an ideal slicing temperature of, for example, –8 °C, low chamber temperatures and corresponding cooling times are necessary. Schr?ter offers a semi-continuous SEMIjet? system with two cooling zones for this requirement. In the first cooling zone, the product is cooled at a chamber temperature of –5 °C to a core temperature of +5 °C. After being automatically transported to the second cooling zone,the bacon is cooled to the desired core temperature of –8 °C at a chamber temperature of –22 °C. With this technology, Schr?ter has closed the gap between intensive chilling and deep-freezing.

CHAMBER AND CORE TEMPERATURE TREND IN THE CHILLING AND FRREZING ZONE (BACON)

For questions, please contact us @Schr?ter Technologie, Germany!

Source: Meeting Point No. 57 (MP57)