Rapid and pre-cooling projects are the projects applied to further extend the shelf life of the products and constitute the two most important basic points of the cold chain.

Fast Cooling

Rapid cooling is the cooling method used to create the necessary conditions for the gradual cooling of the products, freezing and shocking. If a product is to be shocked at -45°C, it should not be outside at ambient temperature. Each product must be lowered to a certain temperature in a certain time in order to be shocked, and this work must be done quickly to prevent moisture release. Thus, it is aimed to prevent crystallization in shock freezing. If the rapid cooling method is applied gradually in the products to be frozen, the storage time and quality of the products to be frozen will increase at the desired rate.

Pre-Cooling

Pre-Cooling is the cooling method applied until the product is delivered to cold stores or to the market. Pre-cooling aims to increase the storage times of the products to be stored. At the same time, if the products to be stored in cold storage are subjected to pre-cooling, the costs of the cold storage are significantly reduced. Pre-cooling is generally done by three different methods according to the characteristics of the product. We can divide the first two of these methods into three among themselves. These methods are;

• Pre-cooling with airflow,
• Pre-cooling with compressed air,
• Pre-cooling with humidified air,
• Pre-cooling by evaporation.
• Pre-cooling with water,
• Submerging the product in cold or ice water
• Spraying cold or ice water on the product
• pre-cooling processes with cold water sources
• Vacuum pre-cooling methods.