Food spoilage is a problem most businesses cannot afford to endure over and over. Whether you are faced with a health scare caused by food spoilage or the simple, yet costly loss that comes to pass when food goes bad, there are ways to help keep your food fresh longer.
The Problem
Food spoilage is often caused by a rise in temperature when food needs to remain cold. Anytime warm air is let into refrigerated areas, such as walk-in coolers, the temperature rises leading to a quicker rate of food spoilage. This is an extremely undesired occurrence for any restaurant or food service business.
The Effects
When food spoils rapidly, there are many negative effects on the business.
- When food is not properly cared for, or when food sees varying degrees of temperatures in a day, it can cause safety concerns for customers and dining patrons. Food contamination is often brought on when air contaminants are free to roam. By leaving your food open to the outside, warmer air, it is more like to contaminate and mold your food supply.
- Health Department. The health department has rules on refrigeration for many reasons. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Refrigeration slows bacterial growth. Bacteria exist everywhere in nature. They are in the soil, air, water, and the foods we eat. When they have nutrients (food), moisture, and favorable temperatures, they grow rapidly, increasing in numbers to the point where some types of bacteria can cause illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 and 140 °F, the “Danger Zone,” some doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. A refrigerator set at 40 °F or below will protect most foods.”
The Solution
Keeping your food stored properly will help reduce the risk of food spoilage. But how can you be sure you are doing everything you need to be doing to address this issue and to enact preventative measures? Adding a low-profile air curtain will help significantly reduce the potential of losing your food supply to spoilage.
Here’s how it works: A low-profile air curtain can be placed above refrigerated areas that, let’s face it, often get left open longer and more frequently than they should. Air curtains create a strong, engineered stream of air that prevents outside air from entering and inside air from exiting, thus resulting in a more stable and consistent air temperature and putting you in absolute control over the temperatures you are seeking to maintain.
The Benefits of an Air Curtain
The benefits of adding an air curtain to your refrigerated areas are great. The use of an air curtain alone has the ability to save any business owner thousands of dollars but when it also has the ability to help prevent restaurant and food supply sources from losing food, it can be a game changer.
- Conserve Energy. One of the most common reasons any business seeks the use of an air curtain is to help conserve energy. The use of an air curtain in your refrigerated area can also serve that same function. When walk-in cooler doors are left open, the cold air tends to mix with the warm air creating a fight of sorts between the two environments and effecting the degrees of temperature in both environments. These constant changes in temperature will reflect on your monthly energy bill. By installing an air curtain in your walk in cooler or freezer, you are eliminating the ability of air transfer and maintaining a steady, constant temperature and allowing your compressors to run less frequently. Yes, air curtains are an added cost but their unique ability to lower other expenses is great. For a one-time cost, you reduce costly expenses of energy each month.
- Make Life Easier for Your Employees. Let’s face it, oftentimes we find ways to make our jobs easier. For example, in high volume kitchens, sometimes it is just quicker and easier to leave the refrigerator doors open. While that may not be the ideal solution, there is a way to allow that while still maintaining your desired temperatures and adhering to safety standards. Adding an air curtain to the threshold of your walk-in cooler or freezer section of your place of business can also make life easier by allow the doors to remain open without sacrificing your costly supply.
Air curtains offer many benefits to business of any kind but when food spoilage is a concern, it is a necessity. The benefits far outweigh other costly and less successful methods.
Are you ready to add an air curtain to your walk-in cooler and freezer sections to help lessen the rate of food spoilage in your place of business? The experts at Air Door Distributors are ready to assist you in determining the appropriate air curtain for your specific business and needs. Call today at 866-402-1642, click for a live chat or simply fill out our contact form and we will get you the air curtain to best fit your needs.