Seafood Refrigeration Equipment: A Practical and Efficient Way of Food Storage

Seafood is among the most expensive and sensitive food products, which require careful and proper storage until use to prevent waste and spoilage. Therefore, fish, shrimp, crabs, mussels, or oysters must be transferred to cold storage, and you must cook them at once to ensure they retain their best condition. Or, you can opt to store them under suitable conditions until they are needed, which will bring a new requirement for your business.

Seafood refrigeration equipment is the true solution for this, and they are specially designed commercial refrigeration products that can handle a high volume of seafood to keep you supplied with fresh products or help your business grow through an eye-catching presentation of your product range. Hence, whether you launch a new seafood business or renew your existing place, you should ensure you have the right commercial seafood refrigeration equipment with the right features and sizes.

How Long Is Seafood Good in The Refrigerator?

Seafood is a delicate product, and it is crucial to store and display them at optimal conditions and for optimal durations to preserve its best taste and texture while hindering waste. As stated by the Food and Drug Administration, raw fish should only be kept in the refrigerator for 2 days at max (at 40 °F/4.4 °C or less) before cooking or freezing. Freezing the seafood can remarkably prolong the storage life, and you are recommended to use the frozen fish until 8 months before they start to lose their best condition.  

How Long Can The Cooked Seafood Be Refrigerated?

If you prefer to store the fish and other sea foods cooked, you can keep them for up to 4 days in the refrigerator and up to 3 months as frozen to serve them before bacterial growth.

Advantages of Seafood Refrigeration Equipment

Commercial seafood refrigerators and freezers are designed to ensure the safe handling and storage of seafood products. Therefore, these units offer a wide array of advantages for restaurants, supermarkets, deli stores, and seafood shops.

• Since all seafood is temperature-sensitive, they require proper refrigeration to maintain their freshness and obstruct bacterial growth. Seafood refrigeration equipment can efficiently create the appropriate conditions to maintain their flavor and safety for consumption.

• It is almost impossible to detect the exact amount of fish that you will need daily, and therefore, you have to keep stocks at hand to catch up with orders all the time. Seafood refrigeration units can prolong the shelf life of these products by freezing or cooling them. So, you can keep raw or pre-cooked seafood in the seafood refrigeration equipment to thaw or warm quickly for serving a table.

• Fish may lose their flavor and texture in the case of temperature changes, and therefore, it is necessary to keep them in a consistently chilled cabinet to preserve the best condition.

• Similarly, public health is the prime concern of every foodservice business, and seafood ranks among the most sensitive products. So, hindering bacterial growth is dependent on the constant refrigeration of the seafood products, for which you can trust the seafood fridges and freezers.

Seafood Refrigeration Equipment Options

Refrigeration is the very right thing that can help you serve the most delicious and freshest fish, oysters, crab, and shrimp by ensuring the safety of a relatively expensive food product. Commercial seafood refrigeration can be classified into two main sections, which are storage units and display cases.

1. Seafood Storage Units

Commercial seafood refrigeration equipment features a special design that can handle the rigors of commercial use while providing an efficient and easy-to-reach work organization in your establishment.

Walk-in Coolers and Freezers

Walk-in coolers and freezers are the real beasts of commercial refrigeration which offer a huge storage area to handle all your perishable products. Since humidity and cooling are the two main factors determining the long-term quality of fish, walk-in coolers and freezers can help you store a large amount of seafood and other meat and perishable ingredients. These seafood freezers and coolers also present a practical storage of products with shelving units.

Fish File Cabinets

Fish file cabinets are manufactured from high-quality stainless steel to provide the required durability in a commercial setting. Moreover, these raw fish fridges feature compressors to lower the drawer temperature, and crushed ice is spread inside the drawers to maintain the chill inside for longer periods. Moreover, this seafood refrigeration equipment retains a moist atmosphere to prevent dehydration, conserving the best texture of fish and other seafood products.

This seafood refrigeration equipment also provides ease of maintenance and cleaning through the drain tubes engineered to remove the water from the melting ice. Additionally, this seafood refrigeration equipment is configured to provide safe storage for your delicate seafood products by providing ventilation to absorb odors.

These new fish fridges can be used to keep fish and other perishables within easy access and rapidly facilitate the finding of the necessary products with the easy-to-open drawers where you can store different products and reach them conveniently whenever you need.

Blast Chillers

A blast chiller is one of the top-of-the-line seafood refrigeration equipment designed to quickly cool raw fish or cooked seafood products below the danger zone, which the ingredients start to grow bacteria at a very fast pace. So, you can use them to freeze or cool products very quickly in large quantities to keep them safe until served or sold, in addition to preserving their nutrients and flavor.

2. Seafood Refrigeration Equipment for Display

Displaying products is a significant part of running a business and will always contribute to your sales and increase your profit. However, food display requires proper merchandising refrigerators and freezers to avoid waste while achieving an attractive presentation of products. Thus, seafood refrigeration equipment is also available with smartly designed display units to promote your products.

Seafood Display Cases

Seafood display cases primarily feature an open or transparent front or top display, which features refrigeration to keep the seafood products at safe temperatures and allow the operators to place and showcase their products.

Featuring high-efficiency refrigeration, these seafood display coolers and freezers will safely hold your valuable seafood products and showcase them to your customers with an eye-catching appearance. Besides, these units offer an easily accessible design so that the customers can peruse the products in the cabinet and grab the ones that they desire.

Sushi Display Cases

Sushi is an iconic part of Japanese cuisine and is famous worldwide, making it a profitable addition to your menu. However, you should pay close attention to the best presentation of this beautifully-looking dish while maintaining its freshness. Sushi display cases are specially designed seafood refrigeration equipment in which you can place the prepared sushis, and your customers will be able to see them easily with glass tops and sides, and you or your attendants can quickly serve them with the lift-up tops.

3. Ice Machines

Commercial ice machines are always necessary for seafood display, just like their importance for any foodservice business. You will need ice to keep the fish file cabinets cool enough by filling some ice flakes at the bottom of the drawers, or you can add an eye-catching look to your open-top refrigerated seafood displays by placing the products on a layer of ice.

4. Chest Freezers

Commercial chest freezers are multifunctional commercial refrigeration units that you can use to stack and store all types of perishables in your establishment, including seafood. You can also keep pre-packaged seafood products for easier reach for your customers or personnel.

Conclusion

The success of food service businesses is primarily dependent on the quality and taste of the food they serve. And this is directly related to the use of fresh and high-quality ingredients. However, it is quite difficult to supply fish or other temperature-sensitive products to your establishment at the time when you need them. Therefore, you must keep stocks at hand to catch up with the orders. Seafood refrigeration equipment is, therefore, a vital addition to any food service business that wishes to reach fresh seafood products whenever needed.