Blast chiller: use and advantages

The blast chiller is a machine that is increasingly essential to quickly lower the temperature of food and avoid bacterial contamination. With this operation, foods have a longer life and also the nutritional properties remain intact, you can also reduce waste in the kitchen. The blast chiller is most used in all those catering activities in which raw fish is served, in a few minutes it brings the food temperature from 90°C to 3°C.
Blast chillers, also known as thermal blast chillers, are indispensable for food safety according to the HACCP decalogue. With the use of the thermal blast chiller, the heart temperature of freshly cooked or raw food is suddenly lowered (+ 3° C in a time frame of about 90 minutes), in order to counteract bacterial formation and thus maintain the nutritional qualities.
Through this procedure we can extend the life of food by conveniently storing them in the freezer or fridge. Choose in our catalogue a food blast chiller to eliminate microorganisms and bacteria such as anisakis (a dangerous parasite present in fish meat such as salmon, tuna, sardines, anchovies and cod) that can cause fever and intestinal pain, therefore seriously harmful to people's health.

The blast chiller is used in the professional kitchens of every catering activity:

  • To store raw or cooked food;
  • To hygienically store fish, especially if intended for raw consumption as in the case of sushi, preserving both its taste and organoleptic qualities.
  • To prolong the life of products and counteract waste.
  • Blast chillers for food storage

Why is the blast chiller mandatory in catering?

The professional Sirman blast chillers are mandatory by law according to Community Regulations 852/2004 and 853/2004 in order to reduce food waste. If the catering activity serves raw fish, the 1992 law requires to keep the raw fish at a constant temperature of -20°C for at least 24 hours.
Browse our online catalogue of blast chillers to streamline working time and minimize food waste allowing you to enrich the menu with always safe and fresh food, a wide range of easy to use and highly professional performance blast chillers.
Food blast chillers allow the rapid reduction of the temperature of cooked or raw food, without altering the properties and taste of the dishes; are useful in gastronomy, pastry and ice cream shops, available on our online store also the fish blast chiller in various models and sizes. The blast chiller allows both positive and negative killing, the use of a professional blast chiller has significant advantages in terms of health because it's able to counteract the bacterial load of food, it facilitates the preservation of raw materials and altready cooked dishes and counteracts the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms and bacteria that reproduce with extreme speed and can be seriously harmful to our health.
The blast chiller is a different tool from the freezer for both the time and the freezing method, the use is mandatory by Community Regulations 852/2004 and 853/2004, which aim to reduce food waste and better food preservation. Thanks to the blast chiller temperature there is a significant reduction of waste also with regard to the use of domestic blast chiller.


Why do catering activities need a blast chiller?

The blast chiller is indispensable for catering activities and is available in various capacities and sizes. With a blast chiller you can break down, defrost, leaven and bake at low temperature using a single machine. The Forcar blast chillers allow to quickly lower the temperature of freshly cooked or raw food to an ideal temperature for proper storage in the freezer or refrigerator.
The blast chiller allows both the positive abatement, which brings the heart of the freshly cooked food quickly to +3°C, and the freezing or negative abatement, which brings the heart of the product up to -18°C. The blast chiller is equipped with several shelves where you can place the trays to be cooled to extremely low temperatures, in this way microorganisms and bacteria such as the dangerous parasite of meat and fish Anisakis, are eradicated avoiding the proliferation. All catering activities, including those that administer raw fish/sushi, have the legal obligation to use a professional blast chiller.


How much does a blast chiller cost?

The temperature blast chiller prolongs the life of food preserving its organoleptic qualities. Talking about blast chillers prices on the market you can find several proposals. Considering the multiple advantages it represents an investment more than an expense even in the case of domestic blast chiller, the domestic one's price naturally varies depending on the model to be chosen according to the field of use.
The Tecnodom blast chillers are useful in the professional kitchens of restaurants, bars, pastry shops, ice cream shops, delis and supermarkets. Indispensable also in fishmongers, to preserve the wholesomeness of the fish to be eaten raw.


Use of blast chiller in pastry and ice cream shops

The blast chiller is particularly useful for the preparation of ice cream, even domestic blast chillers, which require the incorporation of air, fundamental to give the final product its creaminess. After the creaming, the ice cream must be stored in the container and goes through negative abatement for some minutes, this creates a thins surface barrier that prevents the product from "deflating" and letting out the air contained in it.
The final result is a creamy ice cream, soft and ready to be served or stored. Even in pastry you can not do without the use of rapid cold techniques to reduce the preparation time. Thanks to the excellent performance guaranteed by the professional blast chillers on sale on Ristosubito, the abatement cycles are fast but delicate, ensuring a perfect result for any pastry product, raw or cooked, finished or semi-finished.


Why buy a domestic blast chiller?

There are domestic blast chillers that can create an ideal microclimate for proofing and honeycomb through programmable cycles. Unlike what you might think the domestic blast chiller does not affect much on consumption, on average it absorbs a power of about 800 watt. Those looking for greater efficiency will have to orient the choice of purchase towards free installation models that usually consume around 300 watts.


How does a professional blast chiller work?

Born for industrial use, the blast chiller is now indispensable even at home. A blast chiller in the kitchen is nothing more than a deep freezer that cools food more quickly by lowering the temperature from about 90 of cooking to 3°C also in the center.
The blast chiller is also able to freeze the various foods at -18°C in about 4 hours without the formation of ice crystals that alter the texture and flavor because they break all the cells.
Cooling and freezing takes place through forced air, it can quickly cool food or sauces while maintaining the organoleptic properties thanks to the absence of ice crystals. Basically they cross the various temperature bands of food and sauces by cooling them, for storage, even in their hearts. It also prevents the formation of harmful bacteria such as salmonella, staphylococcus and anisakis.


What are the differences between positive and negative blast chillers?

There are two types of blast chillers, those of "positive" type and those of "negative" type, are distinguished from each other by the ability to reduce the temperature of the food, above zero those in positive temperature or below zero those in negative temperature.
This is because not all products or processes can be inserted in a negative blast chiller. For example, you can not freeze creams or sauces but you still need to be able to decrease the temperature both for their shelf life and for the reduction of bacterial charges in full compliance with health rules.


Difference between a blast chiller and a professional freezer

We often confuse the blast chiller with the freezer. to have the clearest ideas we start by making a first difference between frozen and deep-frozen. Freezing and deep-freezing are similar but, the freezer brings the food to temperatures below -15°C, large ice crystals are formed inside the food, that lead to a loss of nutrients. Deep freezing is used to preserve foods that are not immediately consumed.
The deep-freezer brings the food to a temperature of -18°C, in this case the nutritional properties remain intact, because the ice crystal are much smaller. Frozen food is more used in the industrial sector and must be made according to a precise standard.
As for the blast chiller, it lowers temperatures within 3-4 hours from 0°C to -40°C, is particularly suitable for storing fish to be eaten raw. Basically the freezer, the deep-freezer and the blast chiller work all three with low temperatures, but their characteristics are different.


Multifunction blast chiller: advantages

Today we also talk about multifunction blast chillers. Multifunctional blast chillers can simultaneously cool products quickly; promote micro-crystallization of liquids; crystallize chocolate and thaw quickly.


How long should food stay in the blast chiller?

The blast chiller is a tool that serves to quickly cool even cooked foods, bringing them in less than 90 minutes from the cooking temperature to 3°C to the heart, and then store the product in the refrigerator.


Is meat meant to be chilled if eaten raw?

Chilling meat does not mean freezing it, there's also the so called negative abatement: it's a real deep-freezing of the product, with a temperature brought to -18°C in less than 240 minutes, thanks to which it's possible to preserve the molecules of the food through the micro-crystallization of water. This process allows to transform the liquids present in food into ice crystals so small that they do not tear the cells, so that the thawed products maintains a quality comparable to fresh.


Raw fish: advantages and obligations of using a blast chiller before consumption

Rapid temperature reduction for food storage is a very useful process for catering professionals and becomes indispensable when the food in question is fish.
In the Italian cuisine there are several dishes that include the use of raw or marinated fish, but it was sushi to make its consumption even more popular. To prepare these specialties in total safety you need to use a blast chiller for fish.
The food cooling speed ensures the blocking of bacterial proliferation. In seafood can develop different types of bacteria that only after the use of the fish blast chiller can be eliminated avoiding the danger of intoxication and infection.
A risk related to the consumption of raw fish is represented by the parasite called Anisakis, which if ingested can be harmful to health causing nausea, abdominal pain and allergies. The raw fish blast chiller lowers the temperature to -20° for at least 24 hours by neutralizing this parasite and other bacteria. When we talk about the abatement of raw fish we are talking about a legal obligation according to which it has become mandatory to chill at -20°C for at least 24 hours for some fish specialties, such as cod, mackerel, mullet, sardines, herring and anchovies. Subsequently, a regulation was adopted extending the obligation to break down to temperature all fish intended for consumption both marinated or raw. Moreover, the administration of these foods must be controlled and regulated by means of self-control card in accordance with HACCP protocols.


How to chill fresh pasta?

The only system consists in quickly freezing the products, so that all the liquids of the food are transformed into microcrystals, thanks to the fast penetration of the cold.
Microcrystals, unlike macrocrystals that have a slow freezing, do not damage in any way the tissue structure of the product and ensure that, once thawed, it maintains its initial consistency, without loss of liquids and color or changes in flavor, texture and weight.
With this system you can freeze with excellent results even delicate products and you can prepare and store at any time, in full compliance with current regulations, customized products being able to prepare them periodically and with considerable time savings.


Are blast chiller trays included in blast chillers?

Among the accessories that can be purchased separately we find the trays for blast chillers and the heart probe.
The heart probe is used to measure the temperature at the heart of food.


Cleaning of the blast chiller

For cleaning it's better not to choose aggressive detergents, is in fact little recommended for health and you would risk compromising the leavening of dough.
Yeasts, in fact, are microorganisms that in the absence of a clean environment complete with the natural bacterial charge of the air could stop their development until the complete inhibition of the sourdough.
Before cleaning the blast chiller's chamber, it's necessary to defrost it by leaving the door open and removing the plug of the drain.
We recommend cleaning the blast chiller with warm water, with non-aggressive detergents, drying the wet parts with a soft cloth.
Do not use products that contain chlorine and its diluted solutions, caustic soda, abrasive detergents, muriatic acid, vinegar, bleach or other products that can scratch or grind it.
Maintenance of the blast chiller shall include at least a daily periodic cleaning of the heart probe. Rinse the probe with clean water and a sanitizing solution.
All cleaning operations of both the blast chiller and the built-in condensing unit must be performed by specialized personnel with the blast chiller shut down and disconnected from the electric voltage.