Chilling and Freezing by Contact with Refrigerated Surfaces (Plate Freezers, Surface Hardeners, and Scraped Surface Freezers)

Abstract

The different types of cooling options to be covered in this chapter have a common feature: the main path of heat transfer between the refrigerating medium and the food product is by conduction through a surface of the refrigerator, normally metallic—of very high thermal conductivity—to which the food or its package is in direct contact, assuring a very high heat transfer rate when this contact is sufficiently intimate. As will be seen later when describing the diverse types of equipment used for this purpose, the refrigerating system and the product to be treated (its shape, consistency and packaging, if any) must be perfectly matched to take advantage of the possibilities of these high transfer rates.