Blast Chillers

Placing hot pans of food inside a regular cooler or fridge will increase the cabinet temperature and can pose a food safety risk, because not only is that food not cooling fast enough, but it is heating up the surrounding items. Blast chillers are designed to minimize or eliminate this risk. Using forced air and a strong compressor, the unit blows cold air over the food for the duration of the chilling cycle. Once the cycle is over, unit goes into “holdover” mode and operates just like a regular cold storage unit, so the food can stay inside overnight or be moved to another cooler.

When using a blast chiller, it is ideal that the food inside the pans be no more than two to three inches thick. This allows for the most efficient chilling to occur. Most units just have a timed chill cycle, but some models come with several sensor probes that can be placed in the food to tell the unit when the optimum holding temperature has been achieved and to switch over to holding mode.