What is a Blast Freezer?

A blast freezer is a large, sealed unit that uses super-cooled forced air to rapidly freeze pallets of perishable food products. Unlike a household freezer, blast freezers can freeze food products much more quickly and efficiently. The blast freezer is designed to rapidly freeze perishable food products down to frozen temperatures, usually -18°C. Our blast freezers at Magnavale can house up to 28 pallets and we have over 18 blast freezers in our cold storage network across Chesterfield, Scunthorpe, Warrington and Easton.

In the food manufacturing sector, the process of freezing food is a popular solution to pause the shelf life of various food products for instance fresh produce, meat, dairy, and bakery items. The freezing process allows food to be stored in bulk for extended periods of time in large frozen warehouses.  

Unlike traditional freezers, the blast freezer can freeze food products rapidly which is important as this cool-down time is crucially important when maintaining product quality. A slower freezing time causes large ice crystals to form, resulting in deterioration of the overall quality of food products, whereas rapidly freezing food product using a blast freezer will result in much smaller ice crystals that cause little or no damage to the product’s taste, texture and overall quality.

Yet an integral piece of equipment in the food sector, blast freezers aren’t designed for long-term storage solutions. Once the food products internal temperature reaches -18°C, the food products are removed from the blast freezer and place into a larger frozen warehouse facility, where they’re kept at consistent frozen temperatures.

We have blast freezing solutions at all four of our temperature-controlled storage facilities in Chesterfield, Scunthorpe, Warrington and Easton, where we carry out expertly led blast freezing services for the biggest food manufacturers in the UK. If you’re interested in our blast freezing solutions, please enquire below.