What is a Blast Chiller?

Commercial blast chillers are a game-changer for foodservice operators looking to streamline their operations and ensure food safety. These powerful machines are designed to rapidly lower the temperature of hot foods, such as cooked dishes or baked goods, to a safe level for storage. Cooling foods properly before placing them in refrigeration is an important part of any food safety program, especially for operations that prepare large batches of food in advance and store them for future use. A blast chiller cuts down on cooling time so you can prioritize other tasks. Keep reading to learn more about these helpful machines and how they work.

Shop All Blast Chillers

What Is a Blast Chiller?

Chef starting a blast chiller

A commercial blast chiller is a powerful piece of equipment designed to rapidly chill or freeze food items. It operates by circulating cold air over the food, quickly bringing down its temperature to a safe level. This rapid cooling process helps prevent bacterial growth, preserving the quality and freshness of your food. A blast chiller looks like a holding cabinet and contains shelves where food pans and sheet pans can be stored. Blast chillers are commonly used in restaurants, bakeries, and other foodservice establishments to cool down hot foods, such as soups, sauces, and cooked meats, in a fraction of the time it would take with traditional methods.

Avoiding the Temperature Danger Zone

When chilling hot food, you should always be aware of the temperature danger zone. Food at this temperature range (41 to 135 degrees Fahrenheit) is prone to rapid bacteria growth which can cause foodborne illness. This is where a blast chiller comes in. A blast chiller brings food through the danger zone as quickly as possible, avoiding the potential for bacteria growth when you are cooling hot foods.

How Does a Blast Chiller Work?

It may seem like magic the way a blast chiller can instantly cool foods, but it mainly comes down to a high-powered refrigeration system that is designed to quickly lower temperatures. The process starts when you place hot food items inside the blast chiller, where powerful fans circulate cold air around the product.

This rapid circulation of cold air helps to remove heat from the food quickly. The evaporator coil is responsible for absorbing heat from the air inside the chiller. As the hot air from the food passes over the coil, the refrigerant inside the coil evaporates, absorbing heat in the process. This allows the air temperature inside the chiller to drop rapidly, bringing the temperature of the food down with it.

To ensure efficient cooling, commercial blast chillers are equipped with advanced controls that monitor the temperature inside the unit and adjust the cooling settings as needed. This precision control allows operators to chill food to specific temperatures quickly and safely, preserving both the quality and safety of the product.

How Cold Is a Blast Chiller?

Blast chillers are designed to quickly chill food from high cooking temperatures to below 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) in a short amount of time. This rapid cooling process helps prevent bacterial growth and maintains the quality of the food. Some models can even chill food down to as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees Celsius) in a matter of minutes, ensuring that your dishes are safely stored and ready for later use. The ability of blast chillers to reach such low temperatures efficiently is what sets them apart from traditional refrigeration methods. By rapidly cooling food, blast chillers help businesses comply with food safety regulations, reduce food waste, and streamline kitchen operations.

How Long Does a Blast Chiller Take to Chill Food?

Typically, a blast chiller can chill food from 160 degrees Fahrenheit to 37 degrees Fahrenheit in about 90 minutes. This quick cooling process helps maintain the freshness and flavor of your food, ensuring that it stays safe for consumption. The exact chilling time can vary based on factors such as the size and density of the food, as well as the model and capacity of the blast chiller. Some models offer even faster chilling times, making them ideal for busy commercial kitchens where efficiency is key.

Blast Chiller Applications

Chef starting a blast chiller

Rapidly cooling foods is extremely useful for food safety, and it also comes in handy for a variety of cooking applications.

  • Flash Freezing: Flash freezing is widely used to extend the shelf life of perishable items such as meats, seafood, fruits, and vegetables. By quickly freezing these items, the food's cellular structure is maintained which helps to lock in the natural flavors, nutrients, and textures of the food.
  • Batch Cooking: Blast chillers are perfect for batch cooking or preparing large quantities of food in advance. By quickly chilling down large batches of food, you can streamline your production process and have ready-to-serve meals on hand. This is essential for healthcare kitchens, school cafeterias, and catering businesses.
  • Baking and Pastry: Blast chillers are also useful in baking and pastry applications. After baking delicate pastries or desserts, quickly chilling them helps to set toppings, frostings, and fillings, resulting in a professional finish.
  • Chocolate Candy Making: The art of chocolate candy making involves the heating and cooling of chocolate to manipulate its shape and finish. Traditional cooling methods can be time-consuming and may result in uneven cooling of your melted chocolate, leading to inconsistent textures and flavors. With a blast chiller, you can quickly cool down your chocolate creations to the perfect temperature, ensuring a smooth and glossy finish every time.
  • Frozen Treats: Blast chillers can be helpful for freezing items like ice cream, sorbet, and other types of frozen desserts quickly, maintaining their texture and flavor.
  • Cocktail Preparation: In the world of mixology, a blast chiller can help elevate your cocktail game. Chilling glasses, cocktail ingredients, or even pre-made cocktail mixes can enhance the overall drinking experience and impress your customers.
  • Sous Vide Cooking: When using the sous vide cooking method, blast chillers are essential for rapidly cooling down vacuum-sealed foods after cooking. This ensures food safety and allows for precise temperature control.
  • Temperature Shock: Blast chillers can also be used to create temperature shock in certain ingredients, such as blanching vegetables or cooling down hot liquids quickly. This technique helps to preserve the color, texture, and nutrients of the food.

What's the Difference between a Blast Chiller and a Freezer?

The main difference between a blast chiller and a standard freezer is that a freezer holds food at freezing temperatures and a blast chiller cools food down. Blast chillers are specifically engineered to lower the temperature of hot food to below 41 degrees Fahrenheit in a short period, typically within 90 minutes. This rapid cooling process helps prevent the formation of harmful bacteria, ensuring food safety standards are met. On the other hand, freezers are designed to hold food at a consistent frozen temperature, usually around 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below. While freezers are effective for long-term storage, they are not efficient at rapidly cooling hot food.

Keep in mind that it's safe to put hot food in a blast chiller but not in a freezer. Food must already be cooled down before placing it in a freezer or else it could lead to bacteria growth. It can also affect the temperature within the freezer and cause other food items to rise to unsafe temperatures. The ability to place warm and hot food in a blast chiller saves so much time in the kitchen and also provides peace of mind.

Blast Chilling Benefits

food pan filled with frozen peas

Blast chilling lengthens the shelf life of food to help your restaurant reduce food waste. This allows restaurants to blast chill food, thaw it, and then serve it at almost the same quality as fresh food. Below are some of the key benefits of blast chilling or blast freezing.

  • Nutrients are retained
  • Maintains quality of food products
  • Increases the shelf life of prepared foods
  • Prevents bacteria from growing rapidly
  • Allows you to cool down food products quickly when cooking

By using a blast chiller, you can significantly reduce the time it takes for your food to transition through the temperature danger zone, where bacteria thrive. This quick cooling process not only improves food safety but also helps preserve the quality and flavor of your culinary creations. Blast chillers are incredibly versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes beyond just cooling food. From freezing desserts and ice creams to chilling beverages and setting chocolate, these machines are a valuable asset in any commercial kitchen.

Posted in: Food Safety|Kitchen & Cooking Tips|By Michale LeRoy
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Improper Food Storage Any foods that are not being prepped or cooked must be stored properly to maintain food safety. The correct food storage procedure encompasses the types of food containers used, the application of date and identification labels, and the order and location of how products are stored on the shelves. Why Proper Food Storage Is Important Food storage is important because it prevents spoilage and cross-contamination. Health inspectors will be checking the foods in your cold and dry storage to look for date labels and expiration dates. They’ll also be observing the manner in which foods are stored to make sure you’re using approved containers and placing items in the correct order on your shelves. Refrigerated foods must be stored from top-to-bottom in this order: ready-to-eat food, seafood, raw beef and pork, ground meats and fish, raw and ground poultry. 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Give your handwashing sink stations extra attention and make sure they are set up with soap and paper towels at all times. 5. Poor Kitchen Sanitation The overall cleanliness of your kitchen requires that work surfaces and equipment are wiped down and sanitized regularly. This includes all the visible surfaces and the not-so-obvious surfaces that are hidden from view. Why Kitchen Sanitation Is Important Kitchen sanitation is important because you cannot safely prepare foods on surfaces and equipment that are unclean. The buildup of grease on your equipment affects the taste of your foods and also presents a fire hazard. If you allow the unseen surfaces inside, beneath, and behind equipment to collect food debris, it attracts pests to your kitchen. Common Kitchen Sanitation Mistakes Health inspectors know which areas are the most likely to be neglected and will be on the lookout for the following: Mold or slime in the bottom of the ice bin (ice machine bins must be cleaned regularly to prevent mold growth) Unclean soda fountain nozzles (all soda nozzles should be taken apart and cleaned daily to prevent bacteria growth) Food debris and buildup beneath equipment (sweep and clean the areas beneath your equipment daily) Grease buildup on equipment (empty grease traps frequently and use degreaser on equipment) Rusted or corroded shelving units (use corrosion-resistant shelving or drop mat shelving) How To Avoid a Sanitation Violation Avoid a sanitation violation by instituting a restaurant cleaning checklist. Train your staff to observe cleaning protocols on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Make sure to place a special emphasis on the areas that are often neglected, like your ice machine bin. 6. Cross-Contamination Avoiding cross-contamination in your kitchen is one of the most important aspects of food safety. Contamination can occur at any stage of the cooking process, including the handling, storage, and preparation of foods. It can also occur from the misuse of tools and utensils, poor personal hygiene, and neglecting to maintain a safe, sanitary kitchen environment. Why Avoiding Cross-Contamination Is Important The contamination of foods by pathogens, chemicals, or foreign objects like glass or dirt is a hazard that can cause serious harm to your guests. Preventing the spread of foodborne illness from cross-contamination requires that you adhere to important food safety protocols. Common Cross-Contamination Mistakes Health inspectors will be paying close attention to any signs of a cross-contamination violation in your kitchen, including these common mistakes: Using the same cutting board or knives to cut chicken and vegetables (any surface that has come into contact with raw chicken should be sanitized) Storing the ice scoop in the ice machine (any object stored inside an ice bin can become a source of contamination) Using glassware to scoop ice (using a glass to scoop ice is a major health hazard because it could cause glass chips to contaminate the ice) Picking up glasses or serving plates by the rim (servers should never touch the surfaces that come into contact with food or beverages) Not storing cleaning towels in sanitizer solution (cleaning towels must be sanitized between uses to prevent cross-contamination) How To Avoid a Cross-Contamination Violation You can avoid the risk of cross-contamination in your kitchen by encouraging your staff members to obtain food handler’s certification. Safety courses like ServSafe have been highly successful at educating restaurant operators so they can understand the risks of contamination and the necessary prevention. 7. Chemical Use and Storage Commercial kitchens require the use of powerful chemicals to clean and sanitize surfaces and equipment. Ensuring that these chemicals are used correctly and stored safely away from foods is all a part of proper chemical use. Why Chemical Use and Storage Is Important Health inspectors catch a lot of operators off guard with chemical storage violations. It’s very easy for a staff member to pick up a spray bottle of cleaning solution and accidentally set it down next to a food pan, even if it’s just for a moment. If the health inspector observes any cleaning chemicals placed near food, it will result in a violation. You can also expect the inspector to test your cleaning and sanitizing solutions to make sure they are at the right concentration. Common Chemical Use and Storage Mistakes Storing cleaning chemicals near food (do not store chemicals on shelves above food or anywhere near food in your kitchen) Storing toxic chemicals in unlabeled bottles (all spray bottles and containers must be labeled to identify the chemicals inside) Not using the correct concentration of sanitizer (your sanitizing solutions must contain the correct strength and concentration to kill germs) How To Avoid a Chemical Use and Storage Violation You can avoid a chemical storage violation by creating designated locations for the storage of your cleaning supplies. Use sanitizer testing strips to make sure all of your sanitizing solutions contain the right concentration of chemicals. The best way to avoid a health code violation on the day the health inspector shows up is to have an established food safety plan in place. Keep your staff trained, provide opportunities for their education, and perform regular walk-throughs to ensure safety procedures are being followed. <aside class="pquote"> <blockquote> The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Please refer to our Content Policy for more details. </blockquote> </aside>