Chilling Versus Freezing

By. Najih - 24 Mar 2023

kelolalaut.com - Frozen seafoods have the advantages of being very close in taste and quality to fresh food. Chilling and freezing are the most effective weapons to control bacterial activity. Here are differences chilling versus freezing as below :

Item	Chilling	Freezing
Description	Refers to exposing food products to low temperatures	Refers to exposing food products to temperatures below their freezing point
Temperatures	1 to 4°C	below -18°C
Term Storage	Short-term storage (< 1 month)	Long-term storage (> 6 months until 2 years)
Ice formation	No	Yes
Microorganisms	Reduce growth but alive	Kill 10 – 60 % microbial
Nutritional Value	Nutrition reduces with storage time	Most nutrient retain
Price	Premium	Affordable

The exceptional efficiency of freezing as a method of food preservation is, to a large extent, due to the depression of water activity. Indeed, when food is frozen, water separates as ice crystals and the remaining non-frozen portion becomes more concentrated in solutes. Physical changes, such as the formation of large ice crystals with sharp edges, expansion. Biological changes, enzyme activity is strongly slowed down but not totally eliminated by refrigeration, even below freezing temperature. The bacterial count after a given storage time is considerably lower. The rate of freezing has an important effect on the quality of frozen foods. The quality changes during frozen storage and get into irreversible changes such as protein denaturation, accelerated oxidation of lipids, and destruction of the colloidal structure of the food.