Why Would You Crust Freeze Your Food Products ?

Crust freezing is a process of creating a hard surface on a food. It involves creating a very thin frozen layer on the outer surface. This process can be batch or continuous. Food processors use a compact cryogenic freezer to achieve the task in minutes. It also saves space, increases speed and improves quality all round. The temporarily hardened surface means the product can be passed through various types of cutting or slicing equipment.

Crust freezing may seem an odd part of your process but it has a number of advantages. There are five in truth:-

1. Better yields in terms of optimization and less waste: Very quick freezing of the extreme outer layer of a food produces a thin crust that protects the food for tearing and other types of damage when it is sliced. That means less loss and a better product in terms of quality.
2. Improved processing speed: Higher cutting speeds are possible when working on a frozen crust which means the cutting step is speeded up with less product damage.
3. Thin slices: thinner slices are produced when you work with a hardened product surface.
4. Alleviation of bottlenecks: If you are slicing or just cutting a food product, you don’t have to wait for the product to cool down in cold storage.
5. Food safety and quality: Only the fresh surface is quick frozen. The product keeps its overall quality and is labelled or classified as ‘fresh’.