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Blast Chillers / Shock Freezers
The practice of cooking batches of food in advance, and then chilling them for use later is a
common commercial foodservice practice. While there are some basic methods typically used
by kitchens such as using ice paddles, water baths, ice cubes in appropriate water-based dishes/
sauces, these are all labour intensive both in preparation of the method and in execution.
Further, food safety is a concern. According to the BC Centre for Disease Control and Prevention,
improper cooling is, by far, the leading cause of food borne illness. This is due to cooling food too
slowly and allowing the temperature to stay in the Danger Zone for too long. When this happens,
bacteria and/or pathogens quickly multiply and can make the patron ill after eating the food.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Food should be cooled quickly. The proper cooling
method follows a 2 hour/4 hour rule and happens
in two steps:
Food is to be cooled from
60°C (140°F) to 20°C (68°F) within 2 hours.
Then, food is to be cooled from
20°C (68°F) to 4°C (40°F) or colder within 4 hours.
Use a probe thermometer to check food temperatures.
60°C
(140°F)
20°C
(68°F)
20°C
(68°F)
4°C
(20°F)
2
HOURS
4
HOURS
So, how can food be chilled
properly? Placing hot food in
a refrigerator is a bad practice
that should be avoided. Not
only are you not guaranteed
that the food being cooled is
being cooled quickly enough,
but the hot food increases
the temperature in the fridge
thereby compromising other
food. The answer to proper
cooling lies in Blast Chillers.
NB: We will use the term Blast Chillers
for all Blast Chiller/Freezer combination
units.
CREDIT: Windor-Essex County Health Unit - How_To_Cool_Food_Properly_ENG.pdf
CREDIT: BC - EnsuringFoodSafetyHACCPWay.pdf