When food has to be thawed in the industrial sector, conventional thawing processes such as cold rooms, cold water or hot air are often still used. A much faster and equally gentle method is the thawing or tempering of frozen foods with microwaves. At frequencies of 915 MHz or 2450 MHz, various products can be quickly and gently heated to the desired temperature with pinpoint accuracy.
The fast process, which takes between 2 and 15 minutes depending on the block size and product, prevents the growth of bacteria and thus maintains the quality until further processing. The size of the block plays a subordinate role, since the heating takes place from the inside to the outside, thus preventing color changes on the surface. Conventional methods using hot air, which heat from the outside to the inside, run the risk of burning the product before it has thawed properly. Due to the shortened thawing time, the loss of liquid is less.
Another key advantage over conventional methods is that products do not usually have to be removed from their packaging. As long as the packaging is microwave-transparent, which applies to most plastics and cardboard packaging, the product can be defrosted in the packaging.
In addition to meat, which is very easy to heat, the microwave process is also suitable for sensitive foods such as vegetables, fruit and fish, as these can be defrosted particularly gently. The advantages of microwaves are also evident in the tempering of fruits and vegetables from a starting temperature of up to -26°C to a target temperature in a range from -5° to -2° C. Due to the exact configuration of the applicator chamber (in the industrial field especially in a continuous line), very homogeneous and fast results can be achieved.
Fricke und Mallah has already developed and implemented numerous projects for defrosting and tempering food. These systems have significantly accelerated and improved the quality of our customers' processing operations.
