Top 5 Pieces of Commercial Refrigeration that Every Foodservice Business Needs

The commercial kitchen equipment you choose can make or break your business.

With so many refrigeration options on the market for specific uses and purposes, it can be quite confusing. There are, however, a core selection of units that are a must for every foodservice operation.

Here are our top 5 pieces of commercial refrigeration that every foodservice business should invest in.

Cold Room
A cold room is designed to maintain low temperatures for the preservation of highly perishable goods on a commercial scale. They are a viable option in commercial settings that need more capacity than a standard storage fridge can offer.

Foster integrated cold room with door open and shelves of ingredientsFoster Integrated Cold Room

Cold rooms are a great investment because:

They support a wide range of uses
Typically, cold rooms will operate with either refrigerated or freezer temperatures. The temperature inside a cold room is sometimes adjustable to support a number of varied uses. For example, you may be able to adapt the unit to operate as a drying room when you need dry storage or a moisture regulated room where you get to control the moisture of products that require adequate moisture during the preservation process.

Cold rooms are airtight to enhance efficiency and ensure that consistent temperatures can be achieved without any influence from the weather and temperature conditions outside.

They are customisable
You can get your cold room in any type or size depending on your specific needs. A custom cold room is usually fitted with the right refrigeration system to ensure that you can keep your merchandise well preserved at all times.

They free up valuable space in your commercial kitchen
In businesses that need to preserve a lot of merchandise, a cold room will save you from having to buy multiple units. You can simply have a cold room outfitted to handle all your products and maintain their freshness. What’s more, it eliminates the amount of heat that other appliances would have produced in the commercial kitchen.

They provide added security for your merchandise
Cold rooms are not just good for preserving your products. They can also keep valuable stock safe and secure. Additionally, a cold room could have a backup system that kicks in every time there is a power outage. This ensures that your products will be preserved in the right conditions for as long as possible.

Prep Counter
Also known as refrigerated preparation counters, prep counters offer more than one service at the same time.

First, they provide you with the surface to prepare your food in the catering business. You can easily prepare different types of dishes on their easy-to-clean surfaces. They also provide the right temperature conditions to keep your food well preserved.

This is especially ideal in situations where space is limited.

Prep counters come with a number of benefits for your foodservice business. They include:

Additional storage space
Not only will you have extra space to store your ingredients, but you will also have the benefit of keeping them well preserved for as long as you are carrying out your day’s business.

They are versatile
Combining hygienic food preparation surface and refrigerated storage, you can make the most of the space you have available by investing in a single piece of equipment that has multiple functions. In turn, this enhances operational efficiency by reducing the time spent travelling to and from separate storage areas.

Storage Refrigeration
A storage refrigerator is as it sounds, a fridge that is used to store and preserve food and ingredients. These refrigerators provide foods with the right temperatures to slow microorganism growth which leads to the deterioration of food.

As a commercial kitchen owner, a storage and catering fridge is an important piece of equipment because:

They minimise loss
Proper food preservation ensures that you do not have to throw away your stock which minimises food waste and saves your business money.

Helps maintain the quality of your food
By slowing microorganism growth, your fridge will help maintain the freshness of food over a period of time. This also helps maintain the high hygienic conditions expected in a commercial kitchen.

Makes it easy to organise your kitchen
Storage refrigeration allows you to keep stock in close proximity to the kitchen for convenient retrieval of ingredients during service.

Chest Freezer
Chest freezers are large compartments used to maintain freezing temperatures for large quantities of products. A chest freezer comes with a hinged horizontal lid as opposed to a door and can be used in commercial settings to give customers easy access to food items and products.

Commercial chest freezers usually come with thicker insulation which reduces the amount of power used to run them. Here are additional benefits of a chest freezer:

They are cost-efficient
A chest freezer will use less electricity and could potentially save you money on energy bills. Additionally, a chest freezer can potentially hold temperatures for up to 3 days without power and still maintain the required conditions for food preservation.

They have an open interior
Their open interiors make it ideal to store items with awkward shapes. Their lack of compartments also increases the amount of space for food storage.

They are easy to organise
You have the option of using bins or baskets to properly organise your chest freezer. You can group food items according to your preferences.

Blast Chiller and Freezer
A blast chiller and freezer is used to rapidly bring down the core temperature of food to prevent bacteria growth. They can lower food temperatures from +70 °C to +3 °C or below within 90 minutes. Blast chillers are a great commercial investment because they allow for the maximum preservation of food.

Here are a number of benefits associated with a blast freezer:

They help maintain the quality of food, reduce contamination and maximise food safety Through their fast freezing action, blast freezers help maintain the quality, texture and taste of your food. A blast chiller is designed to prevent the formation of large ice crystals within the food that affect its quality.

Additionally, bacteria cannot thrive inside a blast freezer because of the rapid freezing. This helps reduce food contamination.

They help reduce energy consumption
Fast freezers work by blowing cold air inside the cabinet using fans. Unlike in a standard freezer where the air inside the cabinet can remain stagnant, the air inside the blast freezer is always moving, thus keeping its internal temperatures low enough. This reduces the time taken to freeze food thus saving on energy consumption.