PREMIUM QUALITY IQF ONION. REALITY OR FICTION?
The handling and preparation of onions can be time consuming and the fast-paced modern world makes nowadays consumers more inclined to buy ready to eat meals and frozen products for easy and fast preparation and consumption.
Onions are usually sold in supermarkets in frozen, canned, caramelized, pickled, powdered, chopped, and dehydrated forms and the general demand of processed onions is growing.
The largest producers of onion and onion products are China, India, the United States, and Egypt and when it comes to freezing, onion processors are usually having issues with the quality. Freezing onion is no so easy, as it is one of the most difficult products to process for a high quality frozen result.
In order to achieve good quality frozen onion, the pre-treatment and freezing equipment are the most important elements.
Pre-treatment
After peeling and dicing, it is recommended to cool the onion to +10C. For a good separation and spreading during the freezing process, onion processors are recommended to use a shaker in the infeed arrangement.
With this steps in mind, processors could actually increase the amount of frozen onion they produce per hour, from 3,5 ton per hour to 4 – 4,5 ton for example.
IQF freezing
Onion is considered a very difficult product to freeze, and many IQF freezer manufacturers can’t manage to freeze onion at all or will do that with a very bad quality frozen result.
The OctoFrost™ IQF tunnel freezer is an innovative freezer with technical features that make it stand out from any other IQF equipment on the market.
The perforated bedplates and adjustable fans speed together with the design of the freezer achieves the optimal aerodynamics, which manage to crust freeze the onion without lump formation or overblow into the coil area. The product really behaves as a liquid, which is why you can without a doubt say that the OctoFrost™ creates true fluidization inside the freezing zone.
The OctoFrost™ IQF freezer is the most suitable freezer on the market for delicate, sensitive and difficult products. The OctoFrost Frozen products have the highest quality which means that processors can sell their products at a premium price.