FREEZERS
When it comes to running a food business within your pub, regardless of the type of meals you serve, you will always need a freezer to store various goods. But when it comes to choosing the right commercial grade freezer for your business, the options can be bewildering!
Freezers preserve food so that it lasts much longer by inactivating microbes whilst the food is frozen. Enzymes occurring in vegetables that cause them to perish or bacteria that cause food poisoning are only slowed down. Most food can be put into a freezer to make it last longer, however, some foods are damaged by the freezing and thawing process. Raw meats freeze better than cooked meats and some salad such as lettuce does not freeze well at all.
Freezing raw and prepared foods mean that it is ready for when it is needed. Sauces, soups, puddings and meats can be prepared in advance, ready for heating to order. This means time in the kitchen can be used efficiently as foods can be prepared in bulk when the kitchen is less busy and simply retrieved from the freezer during busy periods.
8 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Freeze
Things to Consider
While the main need for buying a freezer is to keep food frozen, there are many elements to think about when purchasing such an expensive item as this. In the initial stages, when you are considering a commercial grade freezer, you should ask yourself these questions:
What type of freezer do I need?
There are a variety of different style commercial freezers on the market today such as chest freezers, countertop freezers, upright glass door freezers, ice cream cabinets and under-counter (grab) freezers.
What space do you have available?
Although commercial freezers come in a range of standard sizes, the choices you have may be dramatically reduced depending on how much space you will lose once it has been installed.
How much of your menu contains foods (or ingredients) that are frozen?
If your menu has many of the main ingredients based around frozen items, this could ultimately decide just how big your commercial freezer needs to be.
Second hand or brand new commercial freezer?
The main reason that people buy second hand items of any kind is because of the price tag. While saving money is great, a used commercial freezer will rarely come with any warranty or support from the seller.
Walk in freezers
Walk in freezers are all different from model to model in the storage, volume and cooling technology in comparison to those of conventional refrigeration equipment. Commercial walk in units will provide much bigger storage and the number of meals that can be stored for much longer periods of time.
Walk in freezers are much bigger and stronger than the conventional refrigeration systems, such as roll in refrigerators, chest freezers and blast chillers. If you are looking for a walk in freezer you should be look for durability, eco-efficiency, functionality & clear options to go with your refrigeration equipment. You should try and pick a system with low maintenance costs.
You need to consider energy efficiency and energy saving features (walk in units can often help you store your meals, food provision at a lower cost than a series of other freezers that hold the same volume of products).
Before choosing a walk in freezer, make sure it is exactly what you are looking for, what are you planning to store in your walk in unit, how many shelves do you need to fit all your products, how big the walk in freezer area has to be to fulfil your needs. Most pubs do not require walk in freezers because they are dealing with fresh food and simply do not have the volume of sales (and storage requirements) to justify this significant capital expenditure.
ENERGY SAVING
Commercial refrigeration equipment is very costly, so you may also need to cut the overall cost, by reducing the size, smaller condensers and fans will be installed, which will cut the cost and cut the maintenance bills. Even a small mistake could be costly.
Always opt for latest models, they tend to utilize the latest energy saving technologies which could significantly reduce your maintenance bills and provide you with improved storage.
See my separate articles on How to Control and Reduce Utility Costs and How To Reduce Your Cooling Costs for further advice.
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