3 replies to this topic

[yosali13]

Hi Everyone,

 

This will be my first year as the Practitoner of the company as the last audits ive always been the tech.

 

But we have always had a problem and I cant figure out how to solve it!

 

We manufacture Arepas, a corn bread sandwich which is lastly packed with cheese.

 

But my problem is the Arepa one it reaches the end it comes out at 135F in two hours it reaches almost 70F but slightly higher, its diffucult as where they are stored meanwhile temperture is not below 70F

 

After we are suppose to reach 41F in 4 hours, impossible for us.

 

We make about 18 carts a day and we have to move the carts into a cooler which highest it goes is 44F and we start putting arepas inside with the temp at about 88F

 

I have no idea how to solve this with out it costing an arm and a leg for the company.

 

Any ideas will be helpful!!

 

This is a RTE Food.

 

THANK YOU!!

[matthewcc]

Why do you say it's impossible?  This is an opportunity to "think outside the box" and come up with an innovative solution.

 

Would there be a way to, instead of using refrigeration only, have an increased air flow across the arepas so that it would would remove the excess heat before they go into refrigeration?  Would there be a way to use a combination of air flow and refrigeration to quickly cool them?  Perhaps this could be a process that could last a short time such as an hour or two to quickly cool the arepas?

 

I wasn't clear on whether they are perhaps stacked or aggregated for cooling.  Is there a way to separate the arepas so that they would be able to cool more quickly apart from one another?

 

Matthew

[yosali13]

The arepas are usally stacked in piles of 5, which yes im sure that is a big factor in not cooling quick enough.

We have brought it down to 2 pile stacks and its cooled down almost to 70F, before it would stay 90-100.

 

There was improvement but there in a extractor room with the coldest air of 75F

 

Our cooler doesnt go below 44F. and once we start placing them inside every 15-25min 1 cart goes inside with the temp of 85F so the temperature goes up to 52F and it will go down in the next 24 hours but never below 44F.

 

It takes a good 6-8hours for the cooler to reach the 44F.

 

Ive thought about a blast chiller where you roll in carts but our production is to fast and there is no time to wait 30-45 mins per cart in a blast chiller.

 

Its very difficut, and maybe someone who has more experience can help me open my eyes a little more to other possibilies. 

[SQFconsultant]

Separate them and use cooling fans to bring the temps down before placing them into refrigeration.

 

Having worked with refrigeration systems a lot, if you put a mass in 30-40 degrees highly than the set point of the cooler, the cooler technically works in reverse - the temperture goes up in the cooler first and it strains the condensor system to begin the process of returning to the set point of the cooler.

 

You need to separate, use alternate cooling first (fans) and then place in cooler.

 

This is a key reason why refrigeration systems breakdown and we all wonder why they did.

 

Also, I love Arepa's!!!