WHAT REFRIGERATION TO BUY?

What to look for

HEALTH and safety legislation has increasingly put pressure on caterers to avoid cross-contamination and hold food at safer temperatures. Hence the trend to refrigeration which is job-matched to the total kitchen system rather than simply acting as a series of chilled larders.

Most commercial series of cabinets are available in a full range of models programmed with temperature and humidity settings for specific commodities (fresh meat, wet fish, vegetables, chilled food, wine, beer and frozen food). There is also plenty of choice in exterior and interior finish, with stainless steel displacing the once ubiquitous white stoved enamel option and becoming increasingly the everyday choice.

Upright cabinets

In terms of matching applications, it is now possible to specify upright fridge and freezer cabinets in numerous configurations, with many suppliers offering three or more different dimensional choices: regular Gastronorm, shallow (broadside-on) Gastronorm, and non-gastronorm (typically based on UK bakery tray sizes). Other cabinet variations include half-height commercial cabinets for undercounter siting and pass-throughs with doors on both sides.

Reflecting the importance of fridges and freezer cabinets as front-of-house merchandising aids, it is also now a lot easier to buy cabinets with glass rather than solid doors, suiting self-service retailing applications or simply facilitating regular stock checking. Special exterior colours, trims and illuminated signage can also be provided on many cabinets.

Counter refrigerators

Also known as workstations or chef's counters, counter fridges and freezers cost at least twice the price of upright cabinets when comparing capacity but they are ideal when dedicated to specific commodities and located directly at the point of use (eg under a prep counter and/or in an island position).

Cabinets operate in the same way as upright cabinets but are built horizontally, with the counter on top useable for preparation or as a surface for holding light cooking equipment like toasters or grills. Location can be against a wall or as an island. Many counters can now be built with dedicated preparation tops incorporating chilled inserts for Gastronorm pans holding sandwich, salad or pizza ingredients.

Blast chillers and freezers

With a growing choice of smaller capacity cabinets, blast chillers and combined chiller/freezers are now widely installed in ordinary catering kitchens as well as cook-chill production units. They ensure greater safety when cooling down cooked meals and ingredients and storing them for later regeneration. They can also be useful in stabilising high value perishable produce as soon as it arrives and dealing with left-overs such as cooked joints.

Cabinets work by blasting the food with cold air via powerful fans, bringing its core temperature down to 3C in less than 90 minutes. The refrigeration unit is at least twice as powerful as that fitted to a standard fan-assisted refrigerator and cabinet insulation is greater. However, intensive chilling runs the risk of dehydrating and freezing the surface of foods, so the cabinet's built-in controller must be able to respond to both cabinet air temperature and food temperature via built-in probes and maintain air velocity accordingly.

More delicate items such as fish, vegetables, cakes and rice dishes can be irretrievably damaged if the application of chilled air is too intense. Hence the provision on some blast chiller/freezers of the gentler or "soft" chilling cycles as an alternative to full blast or "hard" chilling. Cabinets which automatically switch to holding mode keep the food at a safe storage temperature of around 3C once the food has been reduced to this temperature.

Many blast chillers also function as blast freezers, bringing food down from +20C to minus 18C within 3 hours. Freezing is typically an extension of chilling and dual or shock freezers can, if required, take hot food products down to a frozen state in a continuous controlled sequence. The food is blast chilled in freezing air to bring the core down to 3C within 90 minutes (which corresponds to Department of Health guidelines) followed by a further application of cold air to get the food to -18C. On some cabinets, Ultraviolet lamps can be switched on inside the chilling/freezing chamber after use to kill off bacteria.

What to buy

Refrigerators

Upright single door cabinets for meat/dairy storage.

SS=stainless steel (grade shown where stated by supplier);

white=painted/stoved enamel; alum=aluminium; GN=sized to take Gastronorm pans

SUPPLIER MODEL CAPACITY GN? FINISH LIST

litres Exterior Interior PRICE

from

Aberna/Dexion FM050 550gross yes SS SS 1099

Angelo Po 55 550nett yes SS alum 1465

Angelo Po 65 650nett yes SS SS 1615

Bonnet Beocold 530 530nett no white SS 1460

Bonnet Beostore SR600 600nett yes white SS 2130

Bonnet BeotronicRI630 630nett yes SS SS 3080

Caravell UK CCS600 630nett yes SS304 ABS+SS 1380

Coggins Welch Eurocool/415L 360nett no SS(18/10)SS(18/10) 1222

G.H.England Beaufort TN700 620gross 2/1 SS SS 1258

Euro Catering Olis R41 400gross no SS304 SS304 1450

Electrolux Series 1-RS13 361gross no white ABS 552

Electrolux Series 2-RS24 400gross yes SS430 ABS/SS -

Electrolux Series 3-RS31 120gross yes SS304 SS304 -

Foster Maxima 400U ?? no SS alum 1169

Foster GN Supra 601HT 570 yes 304SS alum 1550

Foster S600H ?? yes white alum 1120

Frialator Polaris STN70 600nett 2/1 SS ABS 1728

Gram UK K400 387 no white ABS 585

Gram UK K425NMLH 425 no white SS/al 1102

Gram UK K500 500 yes SS SS 1545

Gram UK K600SE 600 yes SS/al SS/al 1419

IMC Mistral M60 120 bottles col/SS white/SS 525

Pentland/ Elite KICPR40 380 no white white 474

Mondial

Pentland VestfrostFKS471 364 no white white 502

Pentland BlizzardA400PV 390 no white white 599

Pentland Mercury CA170 670 yes SS SS 1001

Pentland Blizzard HB1SS 600 yes SS SS 1177

Viscount/Sadia SC310R 310gross no white lamin 885

Welbilt/ WB0450SSCP 450nett yes SS SS 1898

Tecnomac

Welbilt/ WB0450ALCP 450nett yes SS+AL AL 1732

Tecnomac

Welbilt/ 6025-S 560nett yes SS ABS 3279

Delfield

Williams Garnet 595 yes SS SS 1810

Williams Zircon 312 no SS alum 1245

Williams Pearl 396 no wh/SS al/SS 520

Zanussi White Range 185nett no white ABS 590-877

Zanussi Slim Range 386nett yes SS430 SS430 1822

Zanussi Kompact 650nett yes SS430 SS430 2190

Zanussi Non-Gastronorm 400nett no SS430 ABS 1224

Counter refregerators

Basic 2 door cabinets.

SS=stainless steel (grade shown where stated by supplier); white= painted/ stoved enamel; Al=aluminium; GN=sized to take Gastronorm pans

SUPPLIER MODEL CAPACITY GN FINISH LIST

litres Exterior Interior PRICE

from

Aberna/Dexion TM130 290gross yes SS SS 1499

Angelo Po 120 120nett yes SS al 2163

Angelo Po 135 130nett yes SS SS 2407

Bonnet Beotop GI(intg)276nett yes SS SS 2680

Bonnet Beotop(remote) 276nett yes SS SS 2320

Caravell UK CCC202 280nett yes SS304 SS304 1890

Coggins Welch Asland DR700 294nett yes SS SS 1167

Electrolux RT23 300 yes SS304 Polyur 1956

G.H.England Ilsa C2C 280gross 1/1 SS SS 1835

Euro Catering Olis KTR3 314gross yes SS304 SS304 2295

Foster GN Supra 1/1H 132 yes 304SS al 1556

Frialator Polaris KTAR02 314nett 1/1 SS SS 2475

Gram UK KB1407A 294 yes SS SS 1957

Gram UK KB1808A 542 yes SS SS 2392

Pentland/Infrico ME1000SS 210 yes SS SS 982

Pentland Blizzard BC2 210 yes SS SS 1156

Pentland Mercury PN99 345 yes SS SS 991

Viscount/Sadia SC2OR 266gross no SS SS/al 1985

Welbilt/Tecnomac WBC205R 250nett yes SS al+SS 2147

Williams Aztra 283 no SS al 1355

Williams Opal 354 yes SS SS 2110

Williams Pearl 340 no wh/SS al/SS 1135

Williams Emerald 612 yes SS SS 2370

Zanussi REFR TRN1301 280nett yes SS304 SS304 2526

Zanussi Saladette 275nett yes SS304 SS304 2971

Blast chiller/freezers

Models up to 45kg chill capacity

SUPPLIER MODEL CAPACITY GN? LIST

chill freeze PRICE from

Angelo Po SM1L 20kg 10kg yes 2295

Angelo Po SM2L 35kg 20kg yes 3586

Bonnet/Biotronic Turbo M3 12kg 12kg yes 4130

Bonnet/Biotronic Turbo M6 25kg 25kg yes 7270

Bonnet/Biotronic Turbo M10 40kg 40kg yes 10,050

SUPPLIER MODEL CAPACITY GN? LIST

chill freeze PRICE from

Caravell UK CSV500C 16kg 11kg yes 3210

Caravell UK CSV1500C 45kg 25kg yes 4995

G.H.England Ilsa BC/BF700 18kg 9kg 1/1 2914

Euro Catering Olis KBCF10 40kg 25kg yes 6300

Electrolux BC31 - - yes 3561

Foster BCF10/5 10kg 5kg yes 2749

Frialator Polaris KBC5F 18kg 10kg yes 3405

Gram UK KPS18 18kg - yes 3500

Gram UK KPS30 30kg - yes 4850

Irinox Freddy HC51-20 7kg 4kg yes 1490

Irinox Freddy HC141-30 20kg 12kg yes 3870

Irinox Freddy HC141-30 30kg 20kg yes 6650

Irinox A5 18kg 10kg yes 3060

Viscount/Sadia STO5 14kg 10kg no 2795

Welbilt/Tecnomac T5 14-16 kg 10-12kg yes 2850

Williams WBCF10 10kg 10kg yes 3250

Williams WBCF20 20kg 20kg yes 3875

Williams WBCF30 30kg 30kg yes 4510

Williams WBCF40 40kg 40kg yes 4850

Zanussi BC11/BCF11 14kg 14kg yes 3803/4385

Zanussi BC22/BCF22 27kg 27kg yes 4102/5305

Zanussi BC44/BCF44 54kg 54kg yes 6661/7978

Specialist cabinets

SUPPLIER CHEST FREEZER PIZZA PREP BOTTLE COOLER COLD-ROOMS

Angelo Po l l

Atlanta l

Caravell(UK) l l l l

Coggins Welch l l l l

Electrolux l l

G.H.England l l l l

Euro Catering l l

Foster l l l

Gram UK l l l

IMC l

MPD(UK Sales) l

Pentland l

Viscount l l

Welbilt l

Williams l l l l

Zanussi l l