Thinking of Buying a Blast Chiller?

Stories of food borne illnesses make the rounds in the national media all the time, scandalizing brand names in the restaurant, grocery, and food processing industries. Of course, what’s damaging for companies at the national level can be irrecoverable for local businesses. A food borne illness is nothing short of a disaster for food service companies that depend on reputation and word of mouth to drive sales. That’s why many business owners employ a blast chiller to protect themselves.

A blast chiller rapidly cools food and beverages, often reducing their temperature below 40 degrees in five minutes or less. This provides some major benefits to food service businesses.

The Advantages of a Blast Chiller

There are two major reasons people are willing to pay thousands of dollars to buy a blast chiller for commercial use:

Convenience

The ability to chill cooked food or room-temperature beverages in a flash often comes in handy for restaurant owners, caterers, and other food services that operate in a demanding and unpredictable environment. Some homeowners also find this aspect irresistible, not only for the “cool” factor (no pun intended), but because it allows you to save refrigerator space by storing more food in cabinets.

Safety

As we alluded to in the opening, rapidly chilling food reduces the chance of salmonella, e coli, and other bacteria growing. Using a blast chiller protects the health of customers, and the reputation of food service companies.

The Danger Zone

The so-called “danger zone” in which bacteria grows most rapidly is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, some bacteria can double in as little as 20 minutes. So you need to get your cooked food into a refrigerator in less than 20 minutes – no problem, right?

Unfortunately, conventional refrigerators don’t cool food down very quickly. Whether cooked food sits at room temperature for a time or is immediately transferred to a refrigerator, it often remains in the “danger zone” for a lot longer than 20 minutes. For people cooking at home, the risks of contamination in this scenario are low, and the dangers are limited. However, for businesses that need to prepare food in advance in order to meet customer demands – which includes most food service businesses – it is a real problem.

Putting food in a blast chiller rapidly and evenly cools it to a safe temperature, eliminating the risk of harmful bacteria growth. So why don’t all food service companies use blast chillers?

Cost

Using a blast chiller on a commercial level isn’t cheap. A standard-sized unit can cost $5,000-15,000. You can find blast chillers at most large restaurant suppliers, and even at Amazon.com.

For those who can’t afford the price of a new chiller, many restaurant supply companies offer used ones. You can also find used chillers on eBay. The prices are still steep, but for many, buying used reduces the cost enough to make owning a blast chiller affordable.

Blast Chillers for the Home

In recent years, some companies have started offering home versions of blast chillers for rapid cooling of beer, soda, and other beverages, usually as part of a full-sized residential refrigerator. Of course, while they’re not actually blast chillers, there are also a lot of small appliances for chilling beer and wine. If you just need a beverage chiller, these affordable appliances are the way to go.

Due to their cost and energy requirements, blast chillers remain mostly confined to commercial uses. But who knows. With all the advancements in energy efficiency, we may at some point see blast chillers become widely available – giving homeowners the same level of convenience and safety available to businesses.