Food processors have continued to search for technologies that can freeze food products faster, faster to keep up with newer high-speed formers and other high-speed production line equipment upgrades, faster to provide better economic yields as measured by cost of freezing per pound of production, and faster to preserve the quality of the product itself.
Frigoscandia Equipment created a new technology in the early 1990s to make freezing of hamburger patties faster and more economical. Most burgers were frozen with cryogenic nitrogen. While liquid nitrogen froze the patties quickly, the costs of the continual gas replacement were not economical. And other problems in the plant were apparent with spilled liquid at -320°F. High water content products also tend to crack when frozen at such low temperatures.
The thin product impingement freezer technology was engineered and introduced to the marketplace in the '90s; first for hamburger patties, then for a wide variety of thin products. It was designed to fit into the same floor space of the cryogenic tunnel freezer it replaced. Connected to a Frigoscandia Equipment refrigeration system, the ADVANTEC can freeze thin products as fast as cryogenic at a fraction of the cost.
The company's patented impingement airflow technology is a revolutionary way of efficiently freezing, thin, flat food products. Thousands of high velocity jets of air, simultaneously directed at the top and bottom surfaces of the product, blast away the insulating boundary layer of air that surrounds it, freezing it extremely fast and sealing in its freshness.
Recent tests on a European style pancake showed the ADVANTEC freezer could bring the pancake temperatures from 100°F to freezing in 60 seconds flat.
Products that are ideal for the impingement freezer are: Egg products like breakfast sandwich egg patties; Thin bakery products; Chewing gum; Sticky cookie dough; Confectionery products; Fish fillets; Shrimp; Potato products; Meat patties; Poultry parts and fillets.
Modular in design, the ADVANTEC can be increased in size as production increases. Belt designs can be flexible with single and twin belt designs. The twin belt unit can run at different speeds for multiple product freezing needs. Or the belts can be configured in a U-configuration, with the product entering and exiting the machine through the same end.
Some recent customer case histories include cookie dough, chewing gum, confectionery and thin breads.