Enhanced Food Safety
A single incident of a food borne outbreak can have a devastating effect on any food service operation. Food borne illness causes an estimated 10,000 or more preventable deaths every year. It has also been estimated that more than half of all food borne illnesses within the United States is directly related to improper hot food cooling methods. Outside of sterilization, it would be virtually impossible to eliminate all microbiologic contamination from food. Sterilization would also destroy all sensory aspects of food such as taste, color, and texture, along with most of the nutrients.
Conventional storage refrigerators are not engineered nor equipped to rapidly remove heat from large loads of hot food. Consequently, hot foods take much longer to cool, remain within the danger zone for a longer period of time, and are at greater risk of becoming contaminated. This situation can result in loss of sanitation and loss of product.
The rapid reduction of hot food temperatures reduces the opportunity for bacterial growth. Chilling specific foods directly from the cooking process within a prescribed amount of time is also a general requirement of state and local health (hygiene) organizations and falls under HACCP guidelines.
Quick chilling is the process of rapidly reducing food temperature by directing high velocity cold air above and below each pan of food. This balanced heat removal process transfers food temperature quickly through the danger zone, greatly reducing bacterial growth. Reduction of bacterial growth and associated toxins provides an extended refrigerated holding life and a much greater measure of safety. Studies have shown that properly processed cook/chill products show no appreciable bacterial growth for a full five days, including the day the product was cooked.
