Applications and industry news
Communicating with the Market
Linde is committed to helping boost productivity in the food processing market. We are in regular contact with the decision-makers in the industry providing application updates and industry-relevant news.
What's Up with the Frozen Food Market?
Quick answer: the number of units and of dollars contributing to an increase in annual sales. All that growth points to today's consumer-driven preference for the convenience that frozen foods offer. The quality of the products in the frozen foods aisle attracts shoppers who value taste, quality, and consistency.
Rapidly removing the heat during the quick freezing process helps control ice crystal formation preserving the quality of the food product. Our cryogenic tunnel systems offer options for all products, processes, and price points. Contact us to improve productivity at your facility.
Freezing High-Protein Foods
Seafood has always enjoyed a reputation as a healthy food. And now that there is so much focus on diets such as paleo and keto, plus publicity about other benefits such as omega-3 fatty acids and low saturated fats, seafood sales are increasing and that trend is expected to continue.
Our cryogenic freezing technologies like in-line tunnels for whole fish, fillets, and shellfish; or a flighted freezer configuration for IQF shrimp and scallops; or carbon dioxide box snowing can help improve your process and product quality to meet this rise in demand.
Review the healthy attributes of frozen seafood here (639KB)
Meatless Goes Mainstream
Burgers, chicken patties and fish made out of plants are being planned for the future. Firms have focused on making meat substitutes to address growing consumer concerns over health issues and the environmental impact created by animal production and consumption of animal proteins and fats.
Our cryogenic temperature control assists in every step of the process from cooling through freezing. As with other food products, the same benefits of precise temperature control, rapid heat removal, and moisture retention are just as important. Check out how cryogenic applications preserve the intrinsic properties of other food proteins like meat and poultry and seafood.
Now We're Talking
We've been sharing information about cryogenic freezing and chilling all year. Now we're taking the time at trade shows, conferences, and events to introduce more facts. "Let's Talk Cold Hard Facts" is our invitation to continue the conversation about the issues that contribute to operation productivity and the market factors driving change. Cryogenic systems focus on yield improvement, maintaining product quality, and reducing labor costs.
Prepared for Tradition
The variety of food flavors and preparation styles are very diverse, but the basics on some seasonal dinner tables show up year after year. Providing the sauces, soups, purees, gravies, and other cooked food fillings can be a challenge for the food processor. To provide the quality ingredients consumers demand when reaching for convenient products, it is essential to control the cooking time and achieve rapid cooling.The ChillStream liquid food cooling system is an inline process connecting the cooking step to the packaging station - cooling the product during the transfer.
Review the mailer to see how rapid cooling can be a benefit (747MB)
Let's Eat! ... Breakfast
Across America, breakfast may include a variety of items - eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, pancakes, biscuits, pastries, potatoes - and the list goes on. A growing popular requirement among consumers is convenience. Components of a breakfast sandwich, a hearty omelet, or a flavorful wrap can be prepared, assembled, and frozen for the consumer to quickly microwave and enjoy.
Rapid cryogenic freezing of the individual ingredients reduces moisture loss in cooked products and maintains proper portioning. Assembly of the frozen and chilled elements preserves yield targets and may reduce labor costs through improved product handling. Contact Us today to get your breakfast creation into consumers' hands.
Cool Ways to Make Hot Dogs
The basic American treat - a hot dog on a bun. Bakers and meat processors know that it's more than just a simple, convenient, hand-held meal. They strive to ensure that bun after bun and dog after dog is produced efficiently, uniformly, and with quality results. Part of each process is to ensure that the processing temperature of the dough is maintained during mixing and that the blended temperature of the meat remains at a controlled set point to retard bacterial growth and enhance blending. We offer precise, economical injection cooling using either cryogenic, liquid nitrogen or liquefied carbon dioxide gas.
Stay Ahead of the Curve
There are inherent benefits in working with us to improve both your productivity and maintain product quality. One of those benefits is access to the Food Technologies Lab. This dedicated service provides our customers with factual, data-based details to help select the properly-sized cryogenic system through a thorough understanding of your product's thermal properties. The heat analysis curve was featured in the November mailer and is just one type of evaluation that the food lab performs in our laboratory facility, Other tests and tools include quantitative thermal analysis, water calorimetry, data collection of your product during actual freezing, and a historical database to reference thousands of previously tested products.
Steady Productivity Throughout the Year
Ingredient temperature is critical to obtain reproducible results in baked goods, cookies, crackers, and snacks. Consistency is the key to achieving top quality, batch after batch. Not only do we address temperature control issues for dry and powdered ingredients but other hot spots further down the line. The proper temperature in dough and batter makeup is also important to keep production at its peak. So check out how with work with customers to cool and control the temperature in Flour and Dry Ingredients, Dough Mixer Cooling and Spot Cooling anywhere along the production line.
If you came directly to this page and want to receive interesting facts about the food processing industry, send your contact information using the comment section in Contact Us.
Download the original mailer (407KB)
Astute about Fruit (and Veg)
Fruits and vegetables to be frozen are generally picked at peak ripeness. They are often washed, blanched, frozen and packaged within a few hours of being harvested. Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) production using cryogenic liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide rapidly freezes the fruit and vegetable portions locking in flavor, texture, and color. As varied as the colors and flavors, fruits and vegetables will have a range of optimal freezing processes. The Food Technologies Laboratory will work with customers to determine the best freezing conditions for the specific produce being processed to put in place the preferred parameters.
Review other information by downloading a copy of the August mailer. IQF Produce Production (330KB)
Precise Meat Mixing for Great Grilling
The Hearth, Patio, and Barbeque Association has reported that seven out of ten Americans own a grill or smoker. That translates to a good chance ground meat meats and other processed protein products will be on the menu. Controlling the heat while grilling ensures a tasty outcome. Conversely, removing undesirable heat during mixing and grinding of raw meat products maintains the desired characteristics of the finished ground meat patty or sausage blend. Download the mailer (175KB)
Meat mixer injection cooling using liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide may be used prior to freezing the product using a cryogenic tunnel or spiral freezer.
Things are Heating up the Frozen Foods Aisle
Discerning consumers today are finding more and more frozen entrée and ready-to-prepare meal options that address value, convenience, and quality. In fact, for the first time in five years, there's been measurable growth in the frozen food aisle due in part to the improved quality and variety of the selections.
In addition to final freezing steps, we provide processors with in-line cryogenic freezing and chilling applications to quickly cool cooked sauces, gravies, purees, and other food liquids that make up a portion of the final product. In addition to the cooled liquid components, we can convert those same ingredients into frozen dots or pellets to achieve exact portioning and improved handling. Download the mailer (180KB)
Frozen Pizza Market ... Global Growth
Expected to reach 17.3 billion dollars by the year 2023, the frozen pizza market is just one of the easy-to-prepare food categories that can benefit from a cryogenic freezing process. Other frozen entrée and appetizer selections may also achieve higher productivity and reduced re-work using a liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide system. Review the process for your favorite pizza, calzone, meatball, garlic bread, or another specialty offering.
It's not just the efficiency of our freezing and chilling systems utilizing the rapid heat removal properties of cryogenic gases that provide processing benefits. We also offer product testing on full-sized production equipment in our food laboratory conveniently located in the Chicago metropolitan area.
In the lab, observe the operational simplicity of our freezer systems, evaluate the quality of the product first hand, and learn about the science behind cryogenics. View the complete mailer (225KB)
Did You Know ... About Crust Freezing?
Quickly freezing the outer surface of food products - also know as crust freezing - is just the beginning of the cryogenic freezing process for food. This action firms the product surfaces to reduce moisture migration and retain product shape & appearance. The product continues to lose heat and equilibrates to the target temperature.
The Food Freezing Process in our Food Technology Laboratory
The lab personnel has performed over 12,000 tests to determine the freezing rate and thermal profile of a wide array of food products in our Food Lab over the last 45 years. We use that experience - stemming from all those analyses - to help improve your product quality and boost production.
Testing your product in our Food Lab is a great way to witness first-hand the benefits of freezing or chilling with liquid nitrogen or liquid carbon dioxide. The lab equipment is full-sized, production level systems – not models nor simulations nor analogs. Download the mailer (325KB)
Are You a Cryo-Genius?
Thank you for testing your knowledge of cryogenic freezing and chilling and learning more about the benefits of cryogenic gases and food processing. You’ll regularly get the cold hard facts and more freezing and chilling details in future communications. Each will offer basic facts about how rapid heat removal with cryogenic gases improves production efficiency while maintaining food product quality.
View the entire mailer (380KB)
We offer cryogenic technologies for precise temperature control across varied production including red meat, poultry, bakery, prepared foods, produce, and seafood.