Hardening or Crust Freezing

Do you produce layered foods such as lasagna or desserts? Is your product heat sensitive? Do you have to wait between layers? Has your blast freezer reached its full capacity and does it limit your throughput? Are you currently looking to speed up your cutting or slicing process while avoiding product damage or tears? Or do you simply want to make thinner slices? Then ultra-fast crust freezing may be the solution for you.

By cryogenically hardening or crust freezing your food product, you temporarily freeze a thin layer of its outer surface. This momentarily cooled and hardened surface allows you to successfully continue your production, whether it is passing the product through your high speed cutting or slicing equipment, vacuum packaging it with minimal deformation, adding another layer or topping or simply transferring it to a mechanical freezer to continue the freezing process.

Whether you need a batch or continuous process, our experts will be happy to help you determine which compact freezer will be most suitable for your specific needs.

Five Reasons to Crust Freeze Your Products

Yield Optimisation and Waste Reduction

If you plan to slice or cut your product, the protection from damage ensures minimal losses and a higher quality product

Increased Processing Speed

You can now withstand higher cutting speeds, hot or meltable toppings, or boost your mechanical freezer capacity

Bottleneck Alleviation

For those of you handling warm product, no need to wait until your product has cooled down in a cold storage

Thin Slices

The hardened product surface enables you to produce thinner slices

Food Safety and Quality

This process preserves the product's quality. When directly thawed after hardening, the product is classified as fresh

Ask the Expert

Neil Hansford

Food Technology Expert, UK

“Do I need to say that my fresh crust frozen/hardened product was previously frozen?”

No, because cryogenically crust freezing happens very fast, is limited in time and only concerns the outer layer of your product.

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Dry Ice

No water, no residue, just pure cold

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Gases

Air Products gases, typically provided in gaseous and liquid form, enable customers in a wide range of industries to improve their environmental performance, product quality, and productivity.

Bulk Supply

Delivered by truck and stored on your site either as a liquid in cryogenic tanks or as a gas in high-pressure tubes based on your volume, desired pressure, purity level, flow rate, and operating pattern.

Nitrogen

Useful as a gas, for its inert properties, and as a liquid for cooling and freezing. Virtually any industry can benefit from its unique properties to improve yields, optimize performance and make operations safer.

Are you wondering if this is the right solution for you?

Book a free consultation with one of our experts.