Chapter 16 - Food Refrigeration – Product by Product

Abstract

This chapter describes some of the refrigeration techniques used in the food and drink industry. Ice-cream must be kept at low temperature right up to the point of final consumption. If it is allowed to soften, the entrained air bubbles may escape and the original texture will be lost. If it softens and is then refrozen, a hard, solid skin forms, making the product inedible. Ice-cream must always be handled quickly when passing through transit stages from the factory to consumer. Beers at the point of sale are traditionally stored in cellars to keep them cool. Beers are in kegs or piped into bulk tanks. Artificial cooling of these areas is usual, using packaged beer cellar coolers, and these are somewhat similar to split-system air conditioners. The optimum temperature of fermentation of wine depends on the type, red wines working best at about 29°C while the white wines require a cooler condition of around 16°C. Heat is given off by the chemical process of fermentation. They are then traditionally matured and stored in caves or cellars at about 10°C. Much of the manufacture and most of the storage is now carried out in rooms controlled by mechanical refrigeration.