The Difference Between Thawing and Up-Tempering

As well as providing temperature-controlled storage, we provide up-tempering solutions alongside many value-added services, designed to cut complexity within the cold chain.

If you’re a food manufacturer that uses chilled ingredients that are bulked stored as frozen or you produce frozen food products that are sold as chilled, the correct thawing and tempering processes are essential for further processing whether it be slicing, dicing or mixing.

Many food manufacturers are gravitating away from traditional up-tempering techniques and moving toward alternate methods that improve efficiency and result in a higher quality output. But what exactly is the difference between traditional thawing and up-tempering?

Thawing is the process of allowing frozen foods to come to ambient or refrigerated temperature gradually on their own. Up-tempering accelerates this process in a highly controlled environment to raise the temperature of frozen foods quickly, safely and consistently.

Although thawing may seem like an easy and cheaper solution, it has significant downsides:

Inconsistent Results

Thaw time and temperatures are difficult to control, often leading to product variability. Some areas may thaw faster than others.

Slow Process

It can take many hours or even days for large frozen items to thaw at cool temperatures. This leads to production delays.

High Drip Loss

Uncontrolled thawing causes cell damage and abundant moisture loss. This significantly reduces product quality and yield.

Providing Control with Microwave Up-Tempering

Up-tempering overcomes these issues by providing precision control over the thawing process:

Consistent Output

Up-tempering allows exact time and temperature management to thaw all product areas evenly. This prevents quality variations.

Speed & Efficiency

Powerful commercial up-tempering equipment can rapidly temper large frozen loads, thawing in hours rather than days.

Reduced Drip Loss

Controlled tempering minimises cell damage to lock in moisture. Yields are increased.

Just-In-Time Capability

Products can be thawed as needed, eliminating storage of thawed items and aligning with production batches.

Up-Tempering Solutions at Magnavale

Our microwave up-tempering facility utilises advanced technology to provide the fastest, most precise tempering in the industry, and in fact is one of the largest microwave up-tempering facilities in Europe.

The up-tempering service we offer alongside our BRC-certified temperature-controlled storage solutions, welcomes a great deal of flexibility in your cold chain, allowing you to store frozen product in bulk and have it dispatched at the temperature you request.

To learn more about our up-tempering capabilities and how they can benefit your cold chain, please enquire below.

s within your cold chain. Services like labelling, date coding, and up-tempering can allow flexibility within your cold chain providing a just-in-time solution.

If you are interested in frozen storage, blast freezing or any of our cold chain services, please enquire below.