Freeze Chilling
Freeze-chilling of ready-meals
Freeze-chilling of food involves freezing and frozen storage followed by thawing and then retailing at chill storage temperatures. Freeze-chilling offers logistic benefits in terms of production, distribution, retailing, and in reducing product recalls. Tests on mashed potato, steamed green beans/broccoli/carrots/salmon, lasagne, tagliatelle and cereal-based products indicated that chilling and freeze-chilling gave similar sensory acceptability scores for the product range, and the results are being used by a number of food companies.
Contact
Ronan Gormley, rgormley@nfc.teagasc.ie
Freeze-chilling of raw fish fillets
Fish fillets in prepacks are now being offered by many retail outlets in addition to fish from the wet fish counter. Tests indicated that freeze-chilling is a suitable technology for extending the shelf life of prepacked raw fish fillets. Shelf lives of 2-3 days (or 5-7 days with modified atmosphere packaging) were obtained in the current trials for whiting, mackerel, and salmon portions. Fillet freezing at sea or on-farm would be highly beneficial in delivering an extended shelf life in the chilled phase of the freeze-chilled process. There is ongoing dissemination of the results to seafood companies.
Contact
John Fagan, jfagan@nfc.teagasc.ie
