The Challenge
30,000 schoolchildren in Russia are now enjoying daily ready meals thanks to the working partnership of family owned food processing equipment specialist DC Norris (DCN) and ICS Cool Energy.
The Solution
Around 30,000 pupils in schools in Tatarsan, Russia can now munch through around 30,000 meals a day including soups, sauces and stocks thanks to a specially designed cook-chill system developed by DC Norris, with precision temperature control from ICS Cool Energy.
The process takes kettle cooked foods and pumps them directly into tough, pliable casings at near pasteurisation temperatures. The casings are then placed in a tumble chiller that quickly reduces the temperature from 95°C to below 5°C in 90 minutes or less.
A range of equipment was supplied to the customer and ICS Cool Energy’s solution was an integral part of making the whole system work.
A packaged air cooled water chiller circulates water around the jacket of the cooling kettle, allowing effective and variable control of the application’s temperature according to the food type being processed. A second chiller links to the tumble chiller, circulating water at around 1°C.
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The Result
The combination of hot filling, rapid cooling and special packaging impedes bacterial growth, locks in freshness and provides a 5-6 week safe, refrigerated shelf life. With cook-chill, operators can always have a ready supply of food on hand which is especially important to preserve stocks of supplies as the icy cold climate often affects transportation links.
Ian Jones, director of DC Norris said:
“DCN has been working with ICS Cool Energy for nearly 20 years, so it was an easy choice when we needed an effective cooling system for this customer in Russia. They offered a system that exactly fitted the brief, tackling cooling demands and climatic extremes that met the cost targets and performance needs. This allowed us to propose the complete solution to the customer which resulted in us winning the business.”
ICS Cool Energy partners with manufacturing companies of all sizes, from niche producers to SMEs and global market leaders, we have nearly 30 years’ proven experience and have developed a product range to quickly meet the temperature and load conditions. These work efficiently and within ambient temperatures ranging from -10°C right up to 52°C
[testimonial name=”Ian Jones, Director, DC Norris”]”Our businesses have been working together for over 20 years and our complete solution for the customer won us the contract.”[/testimonial]