Hi All

This is a very important question from me. I don't want to start discussing why it's so important however I would be very grateful if people could take the time to help me solve it. I have been trying to solve this for months now however have thus far been unsuccessful.

Basically I want to slow freeze some poultry and cause maximum ice crystal damage. Ice crystals in meat develop passed the freezing point -2.2c(for poultry) and up to -4c. Therefore I need the meat to spend enough time in this zone in order to do damage I need.

In order to do this I understand one simply needs to slow freeze the item however I am having trouble getting the freezer to slow freeze in the fist place and am wondering if there is an easy way to do this.

Firstly I am trying to accomplish this from home (currently using a domestic freezer) however domestic freezer temps start at -10c and below. The rate of freezing I have found is way to fast with domestic freezers so I haven't been able to acquire the results I want.
I have done things like insulate the meat in a box with towel but didn't see evidence of excessive purge/ice crystal damage and am guessing the items froze quickly.
I also left the door open in order to bring the temperature down however the temp fluctuates too much e.g. is still to low or sometimes too high e.g. sometimes goes to 0 so I am having difficulty controlling that.

Anyway somebody recommended to me that I should freeze at -5c and just leave the item there for a few days. However I understand it is not as simple as that. Firstly, since I cannot even get my freezer to come to -5c so I cannot test it this easily.
Secondly I understand it is not the temperature that determines the RATE of freezing but actually:

a) cooler capacity
b) product load

Guys, please kindly answer the following question for me:

1) Does 'cooler capacity' refer to how much food the freezer can freeze in a given amount of time i.e. engine capacity. Basically, when you buy a freezer and it says this freezer can freeze x kg of food in n hours, is that the cooler capacity? Therefore if you put in more then the capacity the freezer does more works so freezing rate is slower?

2) Is product load the current load in the freezer? e.g. if you put in one item and rest of freezer is empty will it freeze fast?
Also If the product load is already frozen then the rate of freezing will be even faster? If however a bunch of new unfrozen food has been put in the rate will be slower?

3) Somebody told me that you can achieve slow freezing by either increasing the product load over the capacity or I believe the capacity over the product load, however the second point doesn't make sense. I can see why if you place a fresh unfrozen load this will decrease freezing rate if it exceeds the capacity, however if the capacity is increased surely it can freeze more at the normal rate? Not sure if I understood the statement correctly. Here is the specialists statement from a previous email can you please explain what he means, especially in the last sentence:

"Temperature alone will assure it only if the capacity of the freezer is very high. If the load is high in a refrigerator situation, it will not be able to maintain the -5C. It can warm even to + tempeatures in order to cool down the product. The rate of freezing depends on the rate of heat removal and hence they are dependent on the cooler capacity and product load. By increasing one over the other you can make it depend either on the cooler capacity or product load."

4) How important is temperature and why, technically speaking, would a high capacity low temperature freezer cause slow freezing?

5) If I need a low temp freezer I could probably hire a laboratory freezer and set it to -5c however since its a lab freezer I'm guessing the rate of freezing maybe fast regardless of set temp?

Anyway guys can you please answer the above questions and also advise me on what I should do step by step in order to solve this problem from home. Should I rent a lab freezer or should I get a bunch of fresh food then stuff it in the freezer etc? WHat do you think I should do in order to slow freeze meat and cause as much ice crystal damage as possible.

Anticipating your reply. Hope you will be able to help. Thanks.