Freezing is a long been established method of preserving high quality in foods and has been a key technology in brining convenience food to home, restaurants and now also to retail shops.

During the freezing process the food is first cooled to its freezing point wich, depending from the content of salt or other ingredients, is below 0° degree centigrade. One of the main desired effect of freezing is that water is made unavailable for the growth of microrganisms by being in the form of ice. Free water is converted from a liquid to a solid aggregate. Freezing causes the product to solidify, since all the water molecules it contains, crystallize. When water freezes, it expands by about 9% in volume forming ice crystals that vary in size depending on the rate of freezing (i.e. slow freezing gives large crystals, fast freezing smaller one). The rate at wich crystals form is of decisive importance for the quality, the individual form, the texture and the taste of the final product. If freezing takes place slowly, the ice crystals formed inside the cells and tissues are larger, with sharp corners that inevitably damage the cell walls, breaking them; when the product is unfrozen, the liquid component is lost and the product loses its firmness. Its nutritional besides its organoleptic properties are impaired as well. Recent developments in freezing systems have been focused on freezing the food material as rapidly as possible to promote the growth of large numbers of small ice crystal which are not spoiling the cell structure of food. In fact IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) technology have a great advantage: fast freezing enables obtaining very small ice crystals that do not damage tissue and texture of the product which, defrosted, will regain its original physical properties such as taste, appearance, colour, and particle integrity of the fresh product. In IQF technology, temperature and time are key factors to ensure extended preservability of perishable food not only as regards their edibility but also to their organoleptic properties. Each product is frozen singly, thus keeping his individual form and texture and is frozen quickly (below at least -18 °C in less than 30minutes) as a result of which the product's cell structure are retained.

The success of freezing technology has opened a new field for food processor. It is possible to prepare complete meals and freeze them until the consumer is ready to thaw and heat them.

THE ADVANTAGES OF IQF FREEZING SYSTEM
 

• Availability: effectively available and always in season

• Labour Savings: easy and fast to prepare and serve

• No Waste: everything is usable; no discarding or spoilage

• Portion Control: effective way of controlling plate presentation and food costs

• Storage: makes efficient the use of storage space

• Affordability: great price stability throughout the year

• Nutrition: equal nutritional value compared with fresh and no need of preservatives