As a food packing company, the best way to remain competitive is to offer a high-quality product at fair prices. When processing organic goods, the biggest challenge is often finding cost-effective ways to transport product without it spoiling.
We’ve come a long way from the challenging early days of food packing. Modern technology has made freezing food and keeping it cold a breeze!
Still, many distributors are struggling with the process right now, resulting in interruptions to food supply chains and to companies’ success. That doesn’t have to be you!
How? It’s simple: Fast freezing is an efficient way of preserving food for transport and sale.
There are a number of fast freezing methods. One rising in popularity right now is individual quick freezing, also known as IQF. A little-known fact, though, is that there are actually many benefits of IQF foods—it’s not just a distribution fix!
Read on to learn about five great reasons to buy IQF groceries that will benefit your company as well as your clients.
1. Efficiency Saves Money
So, what is IQF? Individual quick freezing is what it sounds like: Foods are quick-frozen by placing them in a very cold freezer, in which they’re either put under pressure or movement is applied.
Why? This ensures that foods remain separate during freezing—that’s where the “individual” part comes in.
Because foods are separate during the process, they freeze more quickly than as with other methods. This saves valuable time, and whenever time is saved, the savings are passed on to you in the form of lower prices.
Additionally, if you switch to IQF from a primarily fresh stock, you’ll stop losing stock to decay: Frozen foods are always good!
2. No More Conjoined Chickens
Not all fast freezing methods have equal results.
When a batch of food, whether peas, chickens, or anything else is all frozen at once, without pressure or movement, it’s likely to stick together. This not only makes your job harder—it also reduces quality!
Consider peaches, for example. If you froze some peaches without IQF technology and they stuck together, the fruits’ skins would be damaged when it came time to use them. Inferior product translates to a bad reputation and lost business, so why risk it?
3. Cut Down on Packaging
Sometimes, to avoid the conjoined chicken conundrum, manufacturers individually wrap items before freezing.
While it does prevent larger foods from sticking together, it’s time-consuming, and an added expense in both supplies and labor, and so much packaging isn’t environmentally friendly!
Not only that, but this obviously isn’t an option for small foods like peas, berries, or chopped vegetables. When searching for a product to carry, keep this in mind: Does it really need that packaging?
If the answer is no—and it often is—then it’s a great idea to get the food as IQF!
4. IQF Foods Freeze Better
So, now you know that one chief benefit of IQF is that it keeps food from being stuck together and damaged. Did you know that that’s not the only way that IQF stands out from other freezing methods?
The fact of the matter is that IQF freezes food better than other methods do. That’s not to say that products aren’t fully frozen either way—of course, both ways freeze them through and through.
With IQF technology, temperature, pressure, and motion are all carefully monitored. Because freezing products is so fast with IQF technology, ice crystals don’t have time to form within foods, meaning that the structure of IQF food is fully intact.
Unlike with other methods, food won’t end up dry or mushy from the IQF process. This ensures the very best quality for your clients.
5. It Ensures Premium Freshness
IQF food is structurally superior, OK, but why should you carry frozen foods at all? Isn’t fresh food healthier?
In fact, it’s not!
From the moment fruit and vegetables are picked, quality begins degrading. In the days it takes fresh food to be processed and distributed, damage occurs, vitamins and minerals are lost, and it grows closer to expiration. If you want to carry fresh produce, you have to rush to get products on and off the shelf and be vigilant about maintaining freshness.
This takes a lot of time and labor, but plenty of bulk sellers are willing to put in the effort—maybe you are, too! Still, no matter how much work you put in to deliver top-notch goods, you’re losing money from the unpurchased, spoiled product, and your clients are getting lower-quality fruits and vegetables than they would if they bought IQF produce.
Fast frozen produce keeps all of its nutrients for a year or more, while fresh produce loses large amounts within days. At this point, it’s clear that the advantage lies with frozen produce! All of these issues are easily prevented by fast freezing.
Want to Join the Fast Freezing Trend?
Now that you’ve read about the benefits of IQF, do you want to get in on the best fast freezing method? Who wouldn’t, with all these advantages?
If you’re not sure where to get started, don’t worry about it! All the IQF products you need are available right here, so start browsing for inspiration. This is a great opportunity to change or expand your stock, too!
IQF is good for everyone, and we’re passionate about providing the community, packers and other industries with top-quality frozen goods. To get set up with IQF foods, contact us here!
All you need to do is get in touch, and you can save money, time, and bring better quality products to your clientele in a snap.
