Food Vacuum Cooler

Short answer: A food vacuum cooler lowers the pressure around warm product so that part of its water boils off at low temperature, taking heat with it. It suits porous, moist products such as bread, steamed buns, cooked rice, many cooked dishes and leafy vegetables. The main factors in the configuration are product porosity and moisture, the weight loss you can accept and the batch size.

How it works

Warm product is loaded on trays, racks or trolleys into an airtight chamber and the door is closed. A vacuum pump removes air and the pressure falls. As pressure drops, the boiling point of water falls, so moisture inside the product evaporates and cools it from within. A refrigerated condenser, or cold trap, turns the vapour back into water so the pump does not have to handle it. When the target temperature is reached, the chamber is brought back to atmospheric pressure, preferably with filtered air, and product goes on to chilling, packing or storage.

Cooling is fast because heat leaves through the whole product rather than only through its surface.

Which configuration fits

Form	Suits	Watch out for
Batch chamber	Bakeries, small central kitchens, varied products	Manual loading and unloading of trays
Trolley-loaded chamber	Rack-oven bakeries, ready meals, produce crates	Chamber and door sized to your trolleys

Cycle time depends on the product, how much of it is loaded and the start and end temperatures; dense or tightly packed loads take longer.

What we need from you to quote

• Product types, with porosity and moisture details or samples
• Batch weight and loading method (trays, trolleys, crates)
• Start temperature and target end temperature
• Acceptable weight loss
• Number of cycles per day
• Building space, power and cooling water or refrigeration options
• Hygiene requirements for the cooked side of the plant

Where it sits in a line

The cooler sits after cooking or baking, for example after a steamed bun production line, tunnel oven or prepared meal production line. Cooled product then moves to a tray sealer for chilled meals or to a food freezer for frozen products.