A Study of the Efficiency of Plate Freezing vs. Blast Freezing of Boxed Boneless Meat in an Abattoir

Abstract

Meat export is a major industry in Australia, and meat packaging and freezing is an energy intensive activity, requiring an objective technical investigation. This study was undertaken in order to assess the relative merits of plate and air blast freezing methods used in industry. To describe the efficiency and the technical superiority of one method over the other, in this paper, the details of an experimental study involving time-temperature measurement of meat boxes inside a plate freezer and a blast freezer under normal working conditions are provided. For the configurations used in this study, it is shown that the freezing time is much shorter for plate freezing, and also there is a much smaller variation in freezing time of various boxes compared to those for blast freezing. The smaller variation in freezing time of various boxes in each batch would help preserve the quality of meat being frozen. Also, it is explained that despite the initial higher capital cost of plate freezing, the total cost over the life of the equipment is much smaller for plate freezing compared to blast freezing.