Blast Chillers

Contrary to standard commercial freezers, blast chillers are designed to bring food down to a consistent temperature at a far more rapid rate, usually within a few hours. While freezers are perfect for keeping already frozen food at an even temperature, blast chillers are best at ensuring that food becomes evenly frozen to begin with. This process also ensures greater food health and safety by reducing the chances of harmful bacteria from growing, along with maintaining the integrity and flavour of your food.

The range of foods you can put into a blast chiller is almost limitless, ranging from soups and sauces to curries and stews. You can also use them to snap-freeze produce that you’ll use at a later date, meaning you can order more stock in advance and keep it on hand when you need it.

After preparing your food, you can put it in the blast chiller, even when it’s still warm. After it’s properly chilled or frozen, it can then be transferred to a fridge or freezer for longer-term storage.

Blast chillers are designed to operate significantly faster than freezers or commercial fridges, chilling food all the way through in as little as 90 minutes. Operating at these kinds of speeds significantly reduces the chances of pathogens having time to form or multiply in food. Generally, food can be left at an ambient temperature for no more than two hours before it becomes a risk due to spoilage. By chilling it all the way through in a rapid timeframe, you’ll not only ensure the taste and quality are maintained but also reduce unnecessary food safety risks.

There are a multitude of benefits to adding a blast chiller to your commercial kitchen, spanning efficiency, profitability, and food safety. The first key benefit is that they’re far more efficient than freezers alone if you’re trying to preserve food for an extended period. With a high-capacity blast freezer, you can store a higher volume of food at any given time.

By freezing rapidly, it facilitates bulk cooking, meaning you can always keep extra stock on hand for those busy rush hours and reduce the chances of having menu items out of stock. When you overpack a freezer with ambient temperature food, it takes a lot longer to cool down, which compromises the quality and safety of the food. Blast chillers are designed to rapidly cool or freeze your food, ensuring it’s done effectively and efficiently.

Rapid cooling or freezing also helps preserve the flavour and nutritional value of whatever you’ve prepared. The reason is the cell structure of your vegetables and ingredients aren’t compromised, retaining its original texture as well, ensuring the quality is the same even when you’ve thawed, reheated and served your pre-chilled food.

The ideal temperature to set your blast chiller to will depend on what you’re using it for. They typically have a broad range of temperature capabilities, with chillers going as low as -18℃ to -40℃.

Many models have a digital display, allowing you to easily choose which temperature you want and set it to either chill for refrigeration storage or freeze it entirely to put in longer-term storage or a freezer display.

The time taken to chill or freeze food totally depends on the model of blast chiller you have, how cold it can get and how full you pack it with food. Generally speaking, most models can get your food from a freshly cooked temperature down to less than 5℃ in as little as 90 minutes to 2 hours. If you’re looking to freeze your food entirely, it will take a little longer, ranging up to 4 hours to be totally frozen.

Blast chillers are typically energy efficient but also serve to reduce the amount of energy your fridge or freezer needs to use in order to chill food. They circulate the cold air more and at a lower temperature to ensure more even, efficient cooling.

When you’re choosing a blast chiller for your own kitchen, you’ll want to consider a few things. The first is how much capacity you need, along with how much space you have in your space. You’ll also want to decide whether you want to opt for a model that can operate at extremely low temperatures, like those that can range up to -40℃, or if a standard model that ranges down to -18℃ is adequate. Snap-freezing in the more powerful models is a great option if you have an ice cream freezer you need to stock, along with being perfect for keeping vegetables and fruits exceptionally fresh through freezing.

Typically, when you’re using a blast chiller correctly, you’ll be fully loading it and then unloading it after all your food stock has been chilled or frozen. After each use, it’s a good idea to clean it, ensuring you've checked the drain lines, that they are clear, and that there’s no food spillage anywhere in the chiller.

You’ll also want to monitor the temperature probes and make sure that they’re free of any ice or food to ensure you’re getting accurate temperature readings. The condenser is another key area to maintain. Checking that the coils are clean and there’s no ice build-up that could prevent proper chilling is important.

When choosing any kitchen appliance, the first thing you’ll need to consider is how much space you have to accommodate it. Check the dimensions of your available space first before deciding on which specifications you want. Even if space is limited due to blast chillers' rapid cooling qualities, you can still optimise your kitchen efficiency.

You’ll then need to consider how much volume you need internally. Calculate roughly how much stock you want to be able to create each day, along with how much needs to go into the fridge or freezer for storage. This will help give you an indication of how much capacity your blast chiller will need. Additionally, accounting for the types of food you want to chill or freeze is important, as some have slightly different temperature needs.

Whether you’re small or large, the best way to find the right blast chiller for your kitchen is with a personalised consultation. For a recommendation that’s unique to your needs, please contact the team at REO, and we’ll be happy to help.

Yes, absolutely. While freezing will take slightly longer than chilling alone, blast chillers are versatile appliances that can be used for both. With temperatures as low as -40℃ and complete control over your blast chiller, it’s easy to store food safely and efficiently.

No, blast chillers are designed to be used for the singular purpose of rapidly chilling or freezing your food. They’re designed to be used as an intermediary kitchen appliance that gets your food to a safe temperature before you put it in either a designated fridge or freezer for longer-term storage.