Blast Freezing

[Mutaz Suhail]

Hi All,
This is my first entry to this interesting website as i was searching for something on Blast Freezing.

What is the reason for blast freezing ?
Is it true to kill salmonella !!

Can B.F. be done for fruits or vegetables beside fish, Meat and poultry.

Does the B.F. help to keep the good condition of the product

Many Thanks
Mutaz

[NH3LVR]

Welcome to the Forum Mutaz.
Blast freezing is done with air at cold temperatures flowing over the product.
It is of no use what so ever for killing Bacteria or making old product fresh again. Many have tried, none have succeeded.
Blast Freezing reduces cell damage by freezing product more quickly than simply leaving it in still air.
This leaves the thawed product in better condition.
Generally speaking the faster the product is frozen the better.
I have little experience with Fruits and Vegetables.
I am sure you will hear more on that as soon those who celebrate Christmas have recovered from the Holiday. (Including myself)

[tranquanghvac]

The life of vegetables and fruits, any kinds of plants( grain...) is still going after processing so that their nutrition are changing continuously. Changing speed depends on kinds. They contains a great amount of water than meats so that you have to concern many bio factors and need eva temp -20_-25 C. Only B.F. cannot help to keep the good condition of the product, good raw choosing and suitable quality processing... are very important, especially the preservation cooling before freezing must be cared.

[US Iceman]

Hi Mutaz,

Welcome to the RE forums.

Blast freezing is a method of rapidly freezing any product to preserve the food quality. As NH3LVR stated, rapid freezing reduces large ice crystal growth in the product.

Slow freezing has the opposite effect. Large ice crystals form in the product. When the large ice crystals form they puncture the product cells.

Slow freezing causes something we call "freezer burn". You can readily see this on the product as it looks like the product has been damaged.

Any product I know of can be blast frozen. Some products though are frozen by different methods.

Small products can be frozen in tunnels at very high speeds, while other large products may take longer and may be frozen in sprial freezers.

[Peter_1]

Here nearby is a large constructor for BF's (freezing tunnels) and mainly used for IQF of small vegetables.
After freezing, the vegetables can then be portioned very well in small quantities.
http://www.skt.be/hosting/SKT/website/skthome.nsf/fPRODFOT?readform&lang=ENG

They're one of the bigger European players in this field (more then 100 peoples working there)

[Peter_1]

Just found this link http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5913E/x5913e01.htm