When an industrial buyer asks for “frozen fruit”, they often don’t realize that there are two radically different technologies: and bulk freezing. Choosing them well means saving waste, time and complaints further down the line.
: piece by piece
stands for Individual Quick Freezing. The fruit passes on a belt inside a tunnel at a very low temperature (typically from -35°C to -40°C, in some systems up to -50°C with liquid nitrogen). The single cube, segment or small fruit freezes completely in 5-15 minutes, remaining fluid and separate from the other pieces.
The advantages:
- Dosability: the product remains free, a single block is not formed. It can be poured by weight from the bag and measured out in portions.
- Fine crystallization: the rapidity of freezing creates small ice crystals, which do not break the cell walls of the fruit. When thawing, the product loses less vegetation water (drip loss).
- Versatility: the customer can defrost the quantity he needs without affecting the rest.
The main disadvantage is the cost: plants are more expensive to run (energy, maintenance) and the price per kilo of the finished product is 15-25% higher than the block.
Bulk freezing
In the block, the fruit is loaded into 5-10-25 kg cartons or tubs and frozen together. The temperature of the tunnel is similar (-30/-40°C) but the inertia of the block slows down the freezing: the heart reaches -18°C in 6-12 hours.
The advantages:
- Lower cost: more competitive price per kilo, often 15-25%.
- Volume per cubic meterhigher in storage (higher density).
- Ideal forpulps, purees, unpasteurized juices, where the structure of the piece does not matter.
The disadvantage: larger ice crystals, higher drip loss upon thawing, need to thaw the entire block or break it mechanically with loss of yield.
Which one to choose
The guiding question is:Should the product be used in full at a time, or in partial doses over time?
- Industrial ice cream parlors with pasteurization: often the block is enough, because the fruit will still be homogenized.
- Fruit yoghurt producers: is almost mandatory for online dosing.
- Baby food: for short steam cooking, block for purees and baby food.
- Preserves and jams: block is fine, everything is defrosted in the boiler.
- Industrial pastry shop with dispensers: , because the fruit must fall free.
Compatibility with your own cold chain
The block requires larger cold rooms (higher overall density) and attention to thawing: a 10 kg block that returns to the cell after partial use can be problematic in terms of shelf-life. is more “friendly” to fractional logistics, even for small semi-industrial laboratories.
Question to the supplier
Always ask: core temperature reached, blast chilling time, average crystal size, drip loss at 4°C at 12 hours. They are indicators that say a lot about the quality of the supplier’s process.
Contact usfor the technical data on the demolition of our tunnels and to receive an evaluation sample.
