Anuga FoodTec 2015 preview

IQF Frost puts the freeze on food safety

By Joseph James Whitworth

- Last updated on GMT

The OctoFrost freezer
The OctoFrost freezer

Related tags Food

IQF Frost will launch a freezer designed to meet increasing demands from producers for reliable food safety, long run time and high yield at Anuga FoodTec next week.

The IQF freezer, OctoFrost has air knives that blow high pressure air in the coil during production, to help keep the coil free from product particles, preventing build-up of snow and optimizing run time between defrost.

More spray nozzles for warm water have been installed too decrease down time and speed up the cleaning process, said the firm.

The system could be used to freeze fruits, vegetables, cheese, seafood, meat and poultry.

Quick freezing sticky products

IQF Frost said a known problem is the challenge of quick freezing sticky products.

Many times the products come out in lumps, which decreases value. A solution to this is a combination of vibrating product beds and a pulsator, it said.

The pulsator in OctoFrost will use the fans capacity to pulse the air in a more efficient way to separate the fruit dices.

IQF Frost has worked with Pinnacle Foods UK on minced meat and meat cubes, Inventure Foods for fruits and berries and Unilever, Langnese-Iglo on pizza toppings.  

Inside the freezers, the patented removable bedplates have a click design to decrease handling time for plant staff.

Energy friendly LED-lights have also been installed to improve cleaning inside the freezer.

Dry Air infusion system

A dry air infusion system in the operating panel, lights and motors, eliminates the challenge of condensation, due to the freezers temperature variation.

It has also been reinforced with stronger fins in the coil and an anti-slip shockproof floor.

Rasmus Larsson, CEO at IQF Frost, said every minute saved in decreased down time means more earnings for customers.

"Understanding our customers' environment plays a key role when working with product development. Our customers should have the highest value of ownership."​ 

IQF Frost will be showing the OctoFrost at the Anuga FoodTec fair in Cologne, March 24-27.

The company will change its name to OctoFrost from April 1 and the service company ProFrost will become OctoFrost Technology. Both firms will be part of OctoFrost Group with existing structure.

Related topics Processing & Packaging