Optimizing meat thawing with Stalam’s RF technology

16 September 2024

Defrosting meat with radio frequency
Defrosting meat with radio frequency

In the food industry, ensuring a high and consistent quality standard is of paramount importance.

A renowned Italian producer of premium charcuterie and meat-based ready meals recently faced challenges with its traditional thawing method. Stalam’s RF (Radio Frequency) technology has proven to be a game-changer in its production lines by improving the operational efficiency, shortening the process time, and leading to a better product quality.

Meat processors often encounter issues with lengthy and uneven thawing processes, which negatively impact the operational efficiency and the final product quality. Conventional defrosting methods like ventilated chambers, forced-air containers, etc., lead to inconsistent and non-uniform temperatures, affecting the appearance and texture of meat, making downstream processes more difficult and impairing microbiological safety.

Our valued customer, a market leader in delicatessen like cured meat, bacon, salami, sausages, and, more recently, ready-to-eat meals, relied on traditional defrosting chambers before processing its frozen raw meat. The company faced all typical problems related to uneven and lengthy thawing, as well as problematic management of the sequence of placing the meat lots to be processed into, and taking them out from, the defrosting chambers.

Stalam’s RF equipment could solve all such issues by ensuring a uniform, fast, and just-in-time defrosting process, leading to a well-controlled final temperature of the raw meat, lot after lot, in a continuous way. Machines with hourly defrosting capacity from 2,000 to 4,000 kg/h were successfully installed in three different production facilities, operating 8-10 hours on a daily basis. In each factory, the production flow was optimized, the product quality improved, the carbon footprint reduced, the microbiological safety enhanced, and, overall, the profitability increased.

“The uniform temperature and the better meat appearance achieved with the Stalam defrosters have significantly improved our process efficiency and the quality of our end products.” — Said a representative of the company.

Once more, Stalam’s RF defrosting technology has proven to be a valuable and cost-efficient tool to improve product quality and operational efficiency in the food industry.

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