Chest freezers for the Food Industry

Running a restaurant is tied with keeping your promise to your consumers that you can serve anything that’s listed on the menu. You surely don’t want to disappoint your patrons by offering something you can’t serve. Logically, restaurants stock up on their essential ingredients and they use large chest freezer to help them on preserving the quality of their stocks.

A chest freezer is one of the essential equipment for any food business. However, purchasing one is no joke. A chest freezer will usually cost more than other electronic appliances in your kitchen like blender, stove or microwave. The best way to be sure about your investment is to look for qualities that can assure you that your freezer will function properly. Consider these questions:

1. What kind of business do you have? If your main menu consists of beverages and not full meals, then it’s best for you to just go for smaller units of chest freezers instead of large ones. Some food establishments also have a unique claim of not cooking frozen meats. If your business has the same claim then you should still buy a chest freezer but go for a smaller one too because you will only need to store less in the storage.
2. Consider the capacity. If you are just starting up on your business, then a small chest freezer will be more than enough for you. A large one will not help you much if you don’t have to store a lot of things in it. On the other hand, if you are already operating on a large scale, you may already want to upgrade your choice to a larger chest freezer which can store your essential ingredients and more.
3. How much space do you have? The space that you can allot for the equipment should also be considered. The good thing about chest freezers is that it has lesser headroom compared to the upright ones making them even more suitable for areas with low ceilings. However, do not commit the mistake of miscalculating the size of your unit against the size of your space. Imagine a large chest freezer placed in a skimpy room. Doesn’t look appropriate, right?
4. Is the freezer efficient? The main purpose of choosing a chest freezer over upright models is the efficiency that you can utilise for using one. When looking for the best freezer for your business, choose the ones with a good energy rating. 

Chest freezer is the popular choice for the entrepreneurs because aside from being cheaper than the upright ones, chest freezers can hold oddly-shaped items unlike upright ones. However, before purchasing any kind of model, you should consider first the challenge of organising a chest freezer because the main problem that you will encounter when you already have the unit is the organisation of the stocks inside it. But still, there’s no question about the benefits that one can take advantage of with chest freezers. A chest freezer is truly an investment in a business that’s why proper care should be taken with this equipment.

Medical Chest Freezers at Cheestfreezers.co.uk

In the medical industry, everything has to be right because even the smallest error can have a big impact on someone’s health. When it comes to handling vaccines, medicines and other aids that can be used to improve one’s health status, storage should always be considered. Vaccines, for one, work only when they are viable. The viability of a vaccine only works when it is intact, undamaged or uncontaminated. Hence, it is very critical to keep the vaccine’s temperature without using a storage that can provide just the right amount of temperature. This is why hospitals use chest freezers as storage for their vaccines, medicines and other medical supplies.

WHAT DO MEDICAL CHEST FREEZERS DO?

Medical chest freezers are different from the normal chest freezers that we have at home because they provide unique features that should meet the requirements of any hospital or medical facility. Medical chest freezers:

1. Remove air prior to pressurization. Medical chest freezers can also sterilize medical equipment or other supplies by putting them under high pressure.
2. Deactivates bacteria. Some presence of bacteria, viruses, fungi and spores get eliminated through the coldness that medical chest freezers produce.
3. Provides uniformed temperature. Calculated temperature is a vital for any vaccine, medicine or medical supply to be effective. Extracted blood should also be kept in a uniformed temperature.
4. Protects certain medicines and vaccines from light. Chest freezers are the best storage material to use when you need to protect medical supplies from sunlight. With its composition, it is almost impossible for light to get through the storage.

Chest freezers are designed to cater to the requirement of hospitals and other pharmaceutical laboratories to preserve the affectivity of any vaccine, medicine or other medical supplies.

MEDICAL CHEST FREEZERS AT CHESTFREEZERS.CO.UK.

At Chestfreezers, we understand that medical chest freezers are important storage for hospitals that is why we only offer the best. Our medical chest freezers have operational features that are appropriate for hospital use. Furthermore, our medical chest freezer can be set to a certain degree to maintain the right temperature needed for medicines and vaccines to preserve their affectivity. Our products are also capable of storing other medical products for research applications and are not just confined to storing vaccines and medicines.

For more information about our medical chest freezers and other types of chest freezers, you can visit our website or contact us through phone at 0845 873 4007. You can also send your enquiries directly through our email and get an expert advice from us!

Can I Freeze These?

Freezing foods really help us a lot not only in saving time but also in preserving food quality beyond its normal shelf life. Having a spacious chest freezer makes us feel that we can stock up on anything that’s on sale in the supermarket and use them later when we need it. However, we must remember that unfortunately, not all foods can be frozen successfully. There are certain types of foods that undergo changes in texture when frozen. It is true that most foods can be frozen but not all foods have the same freezer life and some dishes will not freeze well as the others.

THE FOLLOWING SHOULD STAY OUT OF THE FREEZER:

1. Eggs in their shell. Eggs may not be able to withstand the temperature of the freezer and may cause its water content to expand. This will lead to cracking of it shell that may cause any type of bacteria to come in. Eggs can pose a serious health threat if frozen.
2. Certain vegetables. Celery, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, marrows, radishes, watercress, etc -- or basically fresh and water-rich vegetables. These vegetables are water-based and they freeze easily. However, they form ice crystals that melt during thawing. After thawing, these vegetables become soggy and limp; the crispness will not be present in them anymore. However, if you really need to freeze these vegetables, it is advised to blanche the vegetables first. Unblanched veggies that are stored directly in the freezer will lose their crispness and fresh flavour. Veggies that lost their crispness can still be cooked for soups.
3. Cheese. Soft kinds of cheese such as cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and cream cheese will lose their fluffy texture when the water in them returns to room temperature. On the other hand, hard types of cheese will turn crumbly. Crumbly cheese is okay for grating, though. But not for slicing.
4. Food emulsions. Food emulsions are usually a mixture of two or more type of liquids. The best examples of this are mayonnaise and cream. Emulsified foods may develop large ice crystals that puncture the cell walls when frozen.
5. Egg-based sauces. Egg itself cannot be frozen so it’s very logical that egg-based sauces cannot be frozen as well. Mayonnaise and hollandaise tend to separate during the freezing and thawing processes. The separation results to a product that looks a little weird for cooking.
6. Fillings. The best examples of fillings are cream and custards. Leftover fillings don’t freeze well. The fillings tend to look watery and weepy when thawed which can ruin the looks and consistency of a perfectly good recipe.
7. Potatoes. Potatoes when frozen look mushy. This is good though, but what’s not good is that the appearance of the potato changes. Potatoes darken when frozen. Furthermore, mashed and boiled potatoes seem to turn runny after being thawed while cubed potatoes become grainy in texture.

Freezing works because it slows down the presence of enzymes and other microorganisms that causes the foods to decay. However, we should always remember that not all foods can be frozen. The goal to make preparation easier while keeping goods safe should always be in the top of our priority list.

Cut your Costs with Chest Freezers

Yes, it is a sure known fact that your freezer is helping you to save bucks in food costs; Apart from decreasing your frequent trips to the grocery, freezers also help you stock up on your favourite food items and eat them whenever you feel like munching on them.

Be that as it may, your freezer is helping you to save in food costs but improper use of it can cause you to spend more in your electricity bill because of a lot of wasted energy. A lot of wasted energy will equate to high electricity bill, to put it simply. What we don’t know or realize is that we are not actually cutting the cost of our household expenditures, we are doing the opposite – we are doing a lot of things that causes our electricity bill to rise.

To make sure that you are on the proper path to cutting your cost, make sure that you are doing the following to your freezer:

1. Check the temperature – Using a thermometer, check the temperature of the freezer. Make sure that the thermometer that you are using is the one really intended for checking the temperature of freezers; you wouldn’t want to break an ordinary thermometer for it has mercury content which is harmful to the body if ingested. Going back, make sure that the temperature of your thermometer is close to 0°F. The closer the degrees to 0°F, the better. This can also be converted to Celsius which is -18°C. Foods that are kept at 0°F tend to last for months longer than foods stocked up on 20°F or higher.

2. Remove the air inside the fridge – The air that’s trapped inside freezers cause freezer burn. In order to avoid this, make sure that you have selected the proper containers for the items inside your fridge. Checking that your items are packed tightly can reduce the chance of having air inside the fridge. Besides freezer burns, the air that’s trapped inside your freezer can produce unusual smells. Nobody wants this – use baking soda to clean your freezer and expect the smell to be gone. Additionally, do not forget to check your gasket once in a while. A gasket is the rubber door seal of your freezer. It keeps the cool air trapped inside the fridge and the warm air outside it. A worn gasket requires your freezer to use more energy to do its job.

3. Fill your freezer – For you to be able to keep the temperature of your freezer to 0°F, you must fill your freezer with items and leave no space. It will be a lot easier to maintain the temperature of your freezer by keeping it jam packed instead of leaving a lot of room space. However, as mentioned above, try to pack your items as tightly as you can, leaving no air inside the containers. If you find yourself thinking of how you can fill the spaces of your freezer, you may opt to fill square-shaped water containers with liquids. Rectangular or square shaped containers are easier to stack instead of the rounded ones.

4. List the items inside your freezer and post the note on the freezer door – May it be upright or chest, your freezer will most likely generate higher energy whenever it is opened. To avoid standing in front of your fridge for a long time in search for the food that you need, it’s better to make a list of all the items that you have inside your fridge and just tick off the products that you have already used.

Before buying a freezer, it is important to study your family’s habits. If your family is more into stocking up foods, then you might want to consider getting a freezer that can hold more foods. A chest freezer, for instance is a great storage for a lot of foods. To help you decide whether a chest freezer is good for you, here are additional tips that you can consider before buying one:

• The cost of your electricity bill is related to the style of freezer that you have. Apparently, chest freezers are known to be more cost-effective compared to upright freezers. Chest freezers keep its temperature cold when opened. Upright freezers, on the other hand, get hit with a blast of warm air every time you open it, causing your fridge to double its effort to maintain its temperature. Doubling the effort to maintain the temperature of the storage equates to higher electricity bill.

• Wasted energy can be accumulated to the way you stock your foods and maintain it. When it comes to room space, chest freezers are definitely the best ones to choose for it provides larger space for your foods. Check this blog post to know more about proper stocking for chest freezers.

• Freezers that are frequently defrosted cause your electricity bill to go up. Apparently, chest freezers are usually made for manual defrosting. Defrost a chest freezer once every 6 months or once every 12 months and then it’s already good to go.

Make your freezer work by following the instructions written above and make sure that you are really cutting your household cost!

Effective Ways to Organize Your Chest Freezer

Chest Freezers are surely efficient and cheaper than the upright ones. However, the remarkable dilemma of those people who would like to choose it over the upright ones is its storage. Since its storage size is too large but there are no partitions included when you buy it, people who want to opt for it instead of the upright ones are having second thoughts of purchasing it. The main limitation of a chest freezer is that you are going to be stacking everything together because it has no shelves. However, there are a few tricks on how save through purchasing a chest freezer and organizing your items inside it:

1. Use customizable dividers. You can make use of plastic or wired basket to divide your chest freezer into a number of partitions. In this way, your items will not be jumbled inside your freezing storage.
2. Stack foods according to type. Since you have already bought a number of customizable dividers, you might want to stack your foods according to their type for much easier storing. All meats should be in one place while the vegetables are also in their own respective place. For an even better storing approach, you may opt to sub-divide your foods: meat can be subdivided into pork, beef and chicken while veggies can be sub-divided into leafy ones, yellow ones, etc. Always remember to keep the similar items together so you always know where everything is.
3. Break down larger packages of food into smaller containers. For better storage, you may break down large-sized items into smaller ones by putting them in any of the following: thick plastic bags, tempered glass containers, moisture-resistant papers or foils. Furthermore, these kinds of packaging materials prevent frost from damaging the surface of your foods – causing freezer burns. Additionally, the packaging also allows your food to cool completely as quickly as possible. To maximise the space of your chest freezer, you may want to freeze your items flat until hard.
4. Label everything. Since you have already broken down the large items into smaller ones through the use of the durable packaging mentioned, labelling products will make your food-searching easier. Sometimes, the appearance of the items changes because of the temperature. Labelling them will erase any confusion of what item is inside the packaging. The labels would be more helpful if you would choose to put the date of when you bought it so that you can keep track of its expiration.
5. Place items according to your frequency of use. Keep the products that you will need the most on top. Do this so that you can easily get them. This can also minimise your time and effort in finding your items. Another version of this tip would be putting your older foods first so that you can eat them before they expire. Doing this can help you be practical and not waste food.

People buy chest freezer not because of its appearance but because of its efficiency. You probably bought one to save money. However, finding everything cluttered inside the storage is a challenge. With the mentioned tips on how to organize your chest freezers, you are surely one step away from having a clean-looking yet efficient storage.

Additionally, you can also:

• Make an inventory of the items inside your freezer. You may want to make a list of your items in one paper. To organize your list better, you can put a number on your dividers and list the items under the respective dividers. This way, you can keep track of all the items that you have on hand.
• Think twice before keeping your foods in the freezer. If you don’t really like your leftovers, it would really be a good move if you opt to not stock it up inside the fridge. Stocking up items that you do not want will only make your freezer more crowded.
• Check your food stocks for burned or damaged foods regularly. Keep an eye on the expiration date of your items so that you won’t regret paying for spoiled goods. Be sure to also only shop for the items that you need. Overstocking might hinder you from using other products inside your fridge.

Buying chest freezers is not enough to make the most out of your money – buying cheap chest freezers is! To find the best valued chest freezers in the UK, you may want to check our page. We will make sure that you will get the best bargain while having the best chest freezer that suits your need. 

Tips on How To Maintain Your Freezer

Freezers are probably the most effective appliances for us to preserve our foods. In order to retain the flavours of our food, we freeze them. Stocking and freezing of foods has become a regular way for us to save time for food preparation. However, we may not know a few facts to keep our freezers in its best condition. To help you know the proper ways on how to maintain your freezer, here are a few tips to consider:

1. Make sure that the freezer is properly sealed. Dysfunctional freezers, most especially those upright ones, may cause you to pay extra for your next month’s electricity bill. When an upright freezer is opened, the air falls out of the freezer and the energy is expended to return the temperature back to freezing. It’s good to take note of that.
2. Keep the temperature constant. The main point of purchasing a freezer is to preserve the quality of the products that will be stored inside it. Keeping the temperature of the freezer constant will help in the preservation of the quality of the things kept inside it.
3. Allot space for your freezer. Freezers usually emit hot air on the side where its compressor is located. Make sure that you are allowing the hot air to freely move by allotting enough space for your freezer. It will be best if you will not let your freezer touch your walls.
4. Defrost once in a while. Upright freezers are defrosting automatically by itself while chest freezers require manual defrosting.
5. Clean the outside of your freezer. Freezers do rust when not given proper cleaning. Make sure that you dust off the dirt from the exterior of your freezer to keep the appliances well maintained and fully operational.

Freezers may be one of the appliances that don’t need to be replaced for a long time. However, it will also be a good move for us to know the best ways on how to maintain it. Chestfreezers, UK’s only website dedicated to chest freezers, offers a wide range of good quality chest freezers that you can avail and use for different purposes. Take note of the tips written above to make sure that the freezer of your choice is properly maintained and will last for a long time.