Frozen food will keep anwwhere from 1 to 12 months, depending on the tvpe of food.But often. even if the food keeps. it may get freezer burn.As a result, you may not be able to offer your customers the best in food quality.The thing is, cold store freezing isn't the only option when it comes to food storage. Another available option is "individual quick freezing"or IQF quick freezer.

So what is IQF? And what's the difference between IQF and cold store freezing?Read on to find out!

What Is Cold Store Freezing?

Before we discuss what IQF is, you should first understand what cold store freezing is. since it's what's traditionally used in the industry. Why?

Because it's very efficient for freezing large volumes of food products. Not only that, but it's good for larger foods, such as whole chickens or other types of meat.

How is cold store freezing performed?

First, food products are placed on a tray, then put into a cold storage unit until the food is completely frozen.

As you can guess, this process takes quite a bit of time. Because of this, there is more of a chance of big ice crystals forming

When freezing foods, big ice crystals are detrimental, as they deteriorate the membranes and structures.

Defrosting Cold Store Frozen Foods

When you defrost food from cold store freezing, there's a compromise in taste and nutritional value as well. Not only do they suffer from drioss whie in storage. but once you thaw the foods, they also have a noticeable decrease in cua ity when it comes to taste and nutrition.

Not only that, but the color guality suffers as well. While the foods may look vibrant at the time of freezing, when you defrost them, they maturn a grayish color.

What Is IQF?

As the name suggests, IQF freezes foods individually instead of al together. This is also known as flash-freezing. Usually, it's used for smaller food products, like berries, vegetables, pasta, or cheese.

As we've pointed out above,with cold store freezing, the process takes quite a bit of time. But with IQF , foods are rapidly frozen to speed upthe process. This results in fewer ice crystals, which then boosts the quality of your frozen foods.

How does this happen?

Wel, ice crystals usually form between 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit. To perform lQF, you have to use a specialized freezer that can bypass thistemperature zone as quickly as possible. The less time the food spends in between 25-30 degrees, the fewer ice crystals can form.

The Benefits of IQF

Below, wel compare different aspects of lQF and cold store freezing to show you why IQF is much superior. You'l get to learn the keydifferences between these two methods

Less Time Needed

Cold store freezing takes a lengthy amount of time to do. But IQF utlizes a freezer that has a fluidized bed, which moves the food products ina thermodynamic way. As a result, the foods are frozen to the core much quicker.

Better Retention of Color

As we've said above. foods that are cold store frozen tend to take on a grayish look after defrosting, especially meat. This isn't very appetizing，so efforts to reduce this effect are highly appreciated in the food industry.

At first, it appears that cold store frozen foods are more vibrant in color, But when you defrost them. theyll quickly lose their hue and go gray

IQF prevents discoloration since the flash-freezing process preserves the original quality of the product and very little deterioration happens.

Initially, you may be alarmed because IQF foods are a bit pale when they are frozen. But actually, this is a good sign of quality frezing. Whenyou defrost IQF foods, they'll take on a more natural shade

Better Retention of Nutrients

Cold store freezing almost alwavs has ice crystals. and these will alter the molecular structure of foods. In most cases. it'l destroy the
nutrients found. So contrary to popular belief not all frozen foods are as healthy as fresh.

However by choosing IQF over cold store freezing, it can be. The origina molecular structure of the food wil be intact. which means betterretention of the nutrients naturally found within it.

Better Quality of Food

When vou defrost foods from cold storage. the ice crystals cause drip loss. This eaches the moisturefrom the food and after thawing, it's lost.
As a result, the food may lose its original texture and quality. Even with expert preparation, the food wilstill have a subpar quality to it since the original product was compromised in the first place.

No Deformation

When you freezer multinle food items together the senaration of each one can be difhcult to do. If you manage to pry them apart. it can end upin damage and/or deformation. This can result in yield losses.

Less Manpower Involvea

When dealing with cold store freezing.you need lots of manpower to move boxes and travs around. not to mention.you' also need to cieanand store these things as well. Plus, you'll need mechanical separation of the food if they're frozen together in blocks.

Better Food Safety

IQF foods have practically no exposure to employees, as they need very little handling. In fact, you can even achieve 0 exposure Compare that to cold store freezing, where one piece of food many see many hands before it reaches the final customer.

Choose IQF Over Cold Store Freezing

Now you know the answer to the question: what is lQF? This means you have the proper knowledge as to why lQF is much better thantraditional cold store freezing.

When vou're ooking for a frozen food distributor it's important to source food that's not only high cuality but long-lasting as well. The nexttime you look into suppliers, choose lQF over cold store freezing. lt'll make a world of difference.

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