Chilling, Freezing & Cold Storage

Everything the cooking line heats, the cold side must take back out, and then keep taking out, hour after hour, until the product leaves site. Refrigeration is almost always a food factory's largest electrical load, and unlike the cookers it never clocks off: chilled prep rooms, blast chillers, spiral freezers and cold stores run through nights, weekends and shutdowns. This lesson puts numbers on the two jobs the cold plant does, removing heat from product and holding space temperatures, and explains why freezing a tonne costs several times more than chilling it.