Product Description

What's vacuum cooler?

Vacuum cooling is an ideal way to cool specific fresh produce, such as leafy vegetables and flowers, quickly. A vacuum-cooler can cool produces down from field temperature to about 2°C in 15 minutes. Not only does this guarantee the quality, but it also allows for quick logistic processing and large quantities.

To the supermarket buyer or consumer it is a hallmark of quality to say that the product has been cooled by a unique process. Where Vacuum Cooling differs from conventional methods is that cooling is achieved from within the product rather than by trying to blow cold air over it.

It is the evaporation of water within the product that has a double effect of removing the field heat and sealing in the freshness. This is especially effective in reducing the browning effect on the butts of freshly cut lettuce. No other process can offer you this marketing edge.

The quality of practically all food products begins to deteriorate upon harvesting and continues to decline thereafter. The major effort in vegetable harvesting, handling, processing and transportation is directed towards the maintenance of as much of the initial quality as possible.

In the case of vegetables quality is a result of physiological and microbiological activity in the harvested product. This deterioration is a function of time and temperature: in simple terms the faster it is cooled after harvesting the better the quality and the longer the shelf life. Vacuum Cooling is the means to achieve this!

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For vacuum cooling to cool vegetables quickly, they must be able to lose moisture easily. For this reason vacuum cooling is very well suited to leafy products, such as lettuces, Asian greens and silverbeet. Products such as broccoli, celery and sweet corn can also be cooled effectively using this method. Vacuum cooling is not suitable for products with waxy skins, or low surface area compared to their volume, e.g. carrots, potatoes or zucchini.