Cold or refrigerated storage involves keeping foods beneath ambient conditions and

above freezing temperature, normally between −2 to ~16 ºC. Elimination of heat

energy from foodstuffs through cryogenic systems or the mechanical refrigeration
The process depresses the temperature of the product. Many highly perishable raw
products (like poultry and milk) are quickly chilled before further processing to inhibit
any microbiological growth in raw food products. Most of the foodstuffs subjected
to minimal processing operations such as pasteurization are quickly refrigerated to
check the progression of such microbes that can tolerate processing operations. During
frozen storage, food products are kept at temperatures ranging from −12 to −18 ºC. It is
very important to control temperature during freezing to reduce quality changes such
as ice recrystallization in products, and microbial growth in different foods.
Food products can be frozen either by air-blast freezing, indirect contact freezing,
and direct contact or immersion freezing systems (Heldman & Hartel, 1998). In air
blast freezing, food packages are kept on a mesh belt that is moved through a tunnel
having a temperature of -29 to -40 ºC at air velocities of 10-15 m/s. Any food that
takes 72 hours to freeze in still air, can be frozen in about 12-18 hrs. In indirect contact
freezing, consumer size packets of solid foods are kept in metal plates chilled with the
help of any suitable refrigerant, so that food remains in close contact with the metal
wall but not with refrigerant. In immersion freezing, there is direct interaction between
foodstuff and low boiling point refrigerants such as liquid nitrogen (BP -196 ºC), liquid
carbon dioxide (BP -79 ºC) and freon 12 (BP -30 ºC). This technique is suitable in
freezing irregular shaped foods, minimize the contact of food with air, and is desirable
for foods sensitive to oxidation (Manay, 2001).
To deliver good quality refrigerated foods with high sensory characteristics, care
should be taken for each and every characteristic of the cold chain system starting from
freezing or chilling of the raw materials, during transport and storage of nal product.
Extraction of necessary extent of heat from any kind of food is a difficult process that
is very important in the cold chain process though it is energy and time-consuming. It
becomes very challenging to conserve and regulate its temperature in later stages of
this process, as the food meant to be preserved travels alongside the cold chain. It is
mainly due to the reason that the temperature of large packets of frozen products stored
in large store rooms has less to do with small changes in temperature than single-user
packs in open bags or home refrigerator (James & James, 2014)

DEFINITIONS
· Refrigeration: It is defined as the process of chilling a substance, space or any
systems to reduce its temperature lower than the ambient conditions or we can
say that it is an artificial cooling. Heat is extracted from a low-temperature pool
and moved to a high-temperature reservoir usually by mechanical methods but
Other means such as magnetism, laser, heat, electricity can also be used. It has
many applications in preserving food at the household or industrial level.

· Chilling: The process of preserving food products at a temperature higher than

freezing but lower than 15ºC is known as chilling. It decreases the speed
of biochemical as well as microbiological alterations and prolongs the shelf-
life of raw as well as processed food products. There are minimal changes in
the sensory and nutritional characteristics of food products.

· Superchilling: The process of cooling foodstuffs to a temperature somewhat

lower than the initial freezing point (1–2 °C) is known as superchilling. Only
a small proportion of the water present in food is converted to the ice at this
temperature. There is a minor depression in water activity, but preservation
is mainly caused due to maintenance of the low-temperature conditions. As
most of the water in this method of food preservation exists in liquid form
in different foods, the damaging effects of the complete freezing process are
avoided in this process. This is of additional advantage especially in case of
superchilling of sh. There is no freezing of sh, during preservation by this
technique, thereby maintaining freshness and shelf-life for a longer duration,
in comparison to transportation and storage in frozen conditions (Duun et al.,
2008, Fatima et al., 1988).

· Freezing: This technique involves reducing the temperature of food products

below their freezing point resulting in the conversion of all water content of
food to ice-crystals (Fellows, 2009). Process of freezing is a combination of
the advantageous effects of low temperature which helps in minimizing the
growth of microorganisms, chemical changes in food products get decreased
and metabolic reactions at the cellular level get delayed (Delgado & Sun,
2001)