Tips from MinusForty: This month we thought we’d celebrate by sharing some tips for storing ice cream products in your commercial freezer. The strongest piece of advice we can give you, is to never put even partially thawed ice cream back in the display merchandiser for customers to buy.
Discarding product is the last thing you want to do, but there are times when, for the sake of customer satisfaction, you need to bite the bullet.
- Never put even partially thawed ice cream back in the display for customers to buy.
- Make appropriate room for your products on the commercial freezer shelves.
- Avoid constant opening and closing of freezer doors.
- Perform product checks to ensure plastic product wrappers are in place.
- Avoid fluctuating commercial freezer temperatures.
- Make sure the product is actually frozen.
- Make intelligent purchasing decisions.
- Check product for stickiness and frostiness.
- Make sure to invest in a good upright commercial freezer merchandiser.
Ice cream requires the same precautions as other dairy products. If it thaws, even if you refreeze it, ice cream can result in:
- Food poisoning due to bacterial contamination.
That means customers experiencing signs of illness, can trace the bad experience back to your business. And these symptoms can last hours or even days.
This is why good commercial ice cream freezers are worth every dollar invested. Quality, reliable freezers limit, even eliminate, ice cream throwaway – saving your business thousands of dollars every year.
But why not refreeze it in your commercial freezer, just this once?
Refreezing thawed ice cream can result in:
- Changes its texture, such as grainy and crystallized product that any informed consumer can pinpoint.
- Lasting bacterial contamination issues. Although refreezing the ice cream will slow down the growth-rate of the bacteria, it will not kill it. If you want your customers to trust you and the products that you sell, you need to stock only well-frozen units.
What you want to avoid at all costs.
A customer rushes to the freezer, opens the door and takes the ice cream product in hand like a child who just won a big prize.
As they grab the product in excitement, they notice crusty ice crystals around the container or box. They bring it to your attention, freezer burn. You may throw the product straight in the garbage, the customer may ask for a refund. Not a huge deal, right?
But will they shop at your store or buy the product from you again?
Freezer burn can be the result of the ice cream coming into contact with air, improper packaging/sealing, or may even have to do with the temperature of your commercial freezer.
The best way to store ice cream product in your micro market, convenience store or grocery store.
Let’s take a look at some measures you can take to ensure your ice cream stays the way it’s intended to. Consider these helpful tips to monitor the quality of your ice cream products:
- Make room: Ice cream should be evenly spaced within the freezer, allowing some air flow below and above each shelf.
- Cover up: Ensure the plastic product wrappers hasn’t been broken by performing regular product checks. The seal helps ice cream products resist thawing from uneven temperatures.
- Quality assurance: Though ice cream can be stored up to four months, fluctuating temperatures from opening and closing freezers can affect the product. Monitor your freezers and be sure customers aren’t leaving freezer doors open.
- Working equipment: Check for any freezer door gaps or torn gaskets and consider buying freezer merchandisers that have a NAMA approved SmartLock Health Timer, which monitors the interior storage temperature and safeguards stored food products by locking the frozen merchandiser when a pre-set safety limit is reached. The SmartLock system’s battery back-up also ensures the food safety system functions during a power outage.
- Intelligent purchasing decisions: Make sure you invest in the best when it comes to an ice cream commercial upright freezer merchandiser. Minus Forty freezers keep your ice cream products in perfect selling condition.
Something else to consider. As a result of all the new technologies on the market, IoT commercial freezer options are making it easier for owners to monitor their ice cream products.
You can instantly diagnose and solve commercial freezer cabinet issues by accessing reports containing minute, daily and weekly merchandiser data, which is also handy if a health inspector decides to pay a visit.
For more information visit: https://www.minusforty.com/ or Call 1-888-725-3029