Advantages of Vacuum Cooling for the Food Industry
Maintaining the freshness of food from farm to plate is a tedious task. From the moment of harvest or produce, food begins to age, eventually decaying and becoming unfit to consume. Therefore there is a need to preserve food until it lays fresh on the plate, and an entire industry revolves around food preservation and protection. The vacuum cooler manufacturers belong to one such sector that works to preserve food by evaporating the water content and maintaining its freshness. In this article, we shall discuss how – vacuum cooling in Melbourne is a boon to the food industry.
What is Vacuum Cooling?
Vacuum cooling is a preservation process based on evaporation. In this process, water from the food products evaporates at a much lower temperature under vacuum conditions. Vacuum cooling is a rapid process that lowers the temperature of food products within 20 minutes and helps preserve them. The vacuum cooling in Melbourne is high in cooling rate and is the perfect technique to preserve vegetables and baked foods.
How Does Vacuum Cooling Work?
Knowing a vacuum cooler’s functioning is essential to understanding its benefits. Here is how the vacuum cooler manufacturers explain the process of vacuum cooling-
- Workers place vegetables or baked foods inside the vacuum chamber
- The vacuum cooling system evacuates air from the chamber
- The atmospheric pressure lowers to the boiling point
- Moisture begins to evaporate from the product
- After some moisture turns into vapour, the refrigeration coil pulls some vapour and recondenses it
- The food becomes removable once they reach the desired temperature
Benefits of Vacuum Cooling in the Food Industry
Vacuum cooling in Melbourne or elsewhere substantially impacts every human being since it preserves food and keeps it fresh for a long time, allowing transportation and preventing food wastage. Though these benefits are evident, there are many other advantages of using vacuum cooling technology over others. Here are some-
Rapid Cooling
Vacuum cooling in Melbourne and worldwide requires about 15 to 20 minutes to cool fresh produce. Similarly, for baked products, it may take a maximum of 45 minutes which is still much lesser time compared to conventional conduction and convection methods, where it requires hours to remove heat from the products.
Energy Efficient
Vacuum cooling utilises the heat from within the food product as energy for cooling, unlike traditional methods where external air pumping occurs. The extra air pumping consumes more power which isn’t the case in vacuum cooling. On the record, vacuum cooling uses only a quarter of the energy compared to traditional food preservation techniques.
Uniform Cooling
The biggest drawback of conventional cooling techniques is inconsistency. When the edges reach the desired temperatures, the middle portion of the product still stays untouched. In vacuum cooling, evaporation occurs all over the place while maintaining uniformity. Hence, products with a large surface area, such as lettuce, broccoli and herbs, release moisture and sustain.
Longer Shelf Life
Due to the rapid and even cooling effect, the food products maintain the desired temperature and retain it. It increases their shelf life, making transporting the products easier and reaching more consumers. Even if these stay on the shelf, the retailers don’t have to worry about rotting or wastage and can easily sell off the product.
Food Safety
Air only enters the vacuum chamber when it’s open, and as it closes, the air releases into the atmosphere lowering the temperature. Hence, there is no chance of contamination of food products. Similarly, since vacuum cooling in Melbourne and worldwide follows the principle of rapid cooling, it eliminates the chances of bacteria breeding inside the food products. Hence, the food you consume after vacuum cooling is clean and safe from contamination.
Minimum Loss of Mass
There are chances that moisture loss seems to be weight loss of the product leading to loss of revenue for the retailers. However, it isn’t the case since vacuum cooling utilises a few percent of water from the product, compensating during condensation.
Retention of Product Quality
Vacuum cooling in Melbourne or worldwide not only increases the shelf life of a product but also maintains its quality. If you use the technique to preserve bread or vegetables, you can assure yourself of its quality as releasing the moisture helps these products maintain their crispness for a long duration.
Enables Harvest in Difficult Weather
The pouring rains are the worst for food preservation as they can speed up the ageing process of crops making them rot faster. When you use vacuum cooling to preserve the produce, there is no need to fear the rain and delay harvesting since the quality of the product shall be optimum due to the vacuum cooling.
To Wrap Up
Vacuum cooling imparts significant benefits to the food industry. Be it vegetables, herbs, or baked foods, using vacuum cooling preserves the products and increases the shelf life. Hence, it is a relief for farmers, retailers and the food industry.
Also Read: https://blogtrib.com/what-are-the-advanced-must-have-features-of-an-e-learning-app-like-byjus/