Hi, looking to hear more about legislation around freezing. Are there any known requirements (legal) for how quickly a food stuff needs to reach -18degrees in this process
Hi AJL,
This type of query, not surprisingly, has been posed previously here.
Answers may relate to the Context, eg Location (Global ?!!), type of food, type of freezing, etc etc which you are querying.
For example, IIRC, UK (and I suspect EU) require food categorised as "Quick Frozen" (eg IQF) to be frozen as "quickly as possible". (Not sure if "frozen" is defined and/or specifies -18degC). **
JFI, IIRC, plate freezers (fully loaded) for use in the frozen seafood industry are commonly evaluated in Europe on the basis of being capable of achieving a core temperature of -18degC within a standard dimensions, packed, 7.5kg carton of fish fillets in a time not exceeding 2 hours, 
** UK as of 2019 (also includes refs to EU Regulations) -
Quick-freezing
2.4 Quick-frozen foods (“QFF”) are food products which have undergone a freezing
process known as “quick-freezing” whereby crystallisation takes place as rapidly as
possible, and which are continuously maintained at a level of −18 ºC or lower and
which are labelled to indicate they have undergone that process (more detail about the
legislative requirements is found in paragraphs 2.5 to 2.9).
Quick_Frozen_Foods_regs-final_EM_30.01.19.pdf 425.65KB
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Edited by Charles.C, 23 September 2023 - 04:46 AM.
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