The New Zealand Intellectual Property Office issued Lineage’s 50th patent. Patent number 50 describes a blast freezer design that more efficiently and effectively freezes meat or fresh produce. Blast freezing is exactly what it sounds like, it’s the process of rapidly bringing food from ambient temperature down to below-freezing temperatures, increasing shelf life and allowing it to travel.
Poor airflow and inefficient thermal distribution in industry-standard blast freezing processes can result in inconsistent freeze times and qualities. Such inconsistencies increase the time necessary to blast freeze product, decrease the quality of the final frozen product and waste energy.
Long story short:
The Problem – Inconsistent freeze times and qualities when using conventional blast freeze methods.
The Solution – Redesign blast cells using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and custom-curved metal panels for optimum, equally-distributed airflow across all pallets and products within each cell.
The Results – Freeze more products in as little as half the time while using up to 20% less energy. That’s what we call a win-win-win.
"It’s important to note that Lineage isn’t just innovating for innovation’s sake. Our innovations solve tangible problems, making the cold chain smarter and more efficient for our customers. A more efficient cold chain increases the quality of food, decreases the cost of food and decreases the environmental impact of the food system," - said in company.
Related tags: cold chain