Page 13 - FFD Info Centre - Commercial Refrigeration & Catering Equipment News & Buying Guides

Representing the pinnacle of food safety, blast chillers and freezers pull core food temperatures down quickly through the food danger zone between 8°C and 68°C in line with and compliant with FSA guidelines and HACCP legislation. Not only limiting bacterial growth but also allowing safe extended storage to reduce food waste and permit advance preparation prior to busy services, blast chillers and blast freezers are a fundamental part of any commercial catering and foodservice operation.

Find out everything you need to know about buying blast chillers and freezers and guarantee that you make the right decision for your business and your customers.

Every year, millions of litres of wastewater get dumped into the drainage system in the UK alone from activities carried out in commercial kitchens. On the same thread, water companies spend millions clearing blockages caused by fatbergs which are as a direct result from the FOG introduced by this wastewater from the commercial kitchen.

To prevent this from happening, authorities have introduced laws, regulations and guidelines that involve the usage of grease traps in any commercial establishment serving food. While this isn’t compulsory at present in England, it is strongly advised and will likely become a legal requirement (as it is in Scotland) very soon. You could pay hefty fines for failure to use the appropriate grease traps as directed by your local authorities.

Given the importance of a grease trap to your business and the environment at large, it is important for you, as a commercial kitchen owner, to understand what kind of grease trap you need and the appropriate size for maximum

Luckily, technology has made it is possible to efficiently maintain a clean and hygienic environment around your commercial establishment. You can now use equipment such as commercial dishwashers and glasswashers to easily and thoroughly clean your kitchen and bar wares.

Despite the ease of advanced cleaning introduced by such technology, one thing could still affect the level and quality of results you get from using your commercial ware washers. Hard water. Discover how a water softener can extend the lifetime of your equipment and combat the problems caused by hard water.

Commercial ice machines are one of the most essential pieces of equipment in all foodservice businesses. But choosing the right ice machine for your business can be tricky.

The first thing to consider is what you need the ice for. Do you need higher-quality ice for your cocktails? Or are you just looking to keep chilled displays cool? Either way, you need to choose the right type of ice for the job.

There’s a commonly held misconception that all ice is the same. But that certainly isn’t the case. Ice comes in a range of shapes, sizes and varieties, each with their specific applications.

Knowing the purpose of each type of ice can help you choose the right ice machine for your business. To help, we’ve made a list of the most commonly used types of ice and what they’re best for.

There’s something so reassuringly comforting about pub food. But all too often it can be loaded with extra calories and saturated fat.

Studies have consistently associated eating out with higher daily calorie intake. With more people now eating out than ever before, Public Health England (PHE) are beginning to blame Britain’s booming restaurant culture for fuelling the record levels of obesity.

And pub meals are very often public enemy number one. Research from the University of Liverpool shows that the calorie content of most pub meals is worse than the fast-food equivalent.

Healthier eating is also becoming much more important to customers, with a surge in the numbers of vegetarians and vegans. But eating healthily doesn't necessarily mean you have to abandon your current grub to offer kale smoothies.

Just a few years ago, only a small minority of people had heard of FOGs, fatbergs and grease traps let alone more specialist terms such as grease removal units (or GRU’s). Now, the topic dominates the headlines with the term ‘fatberg’ even being added to the dictionary. The public, both on a domestic and commercial level are now greatly aware of the masses congealing in the public sewer systems on a global scale, the causes and how we can collectively combat the problem.
Although grease traps offer a rudimentary solution for separating fats, oils and grease from wastewater before being deposited into the main drainage network, GRU’s or automatic grease traps offer a more sophisticated solution.
Here we set the two leading suppliers of GRU’s head to head to determine which is the best grease management solution for your business.

Induction cooking was first heralded as “The Kitchen of the Future” in 1933 at the World’s Fair in Chicago, but it’s only in the last few years that commercial kitchens have warmed to the new technology. This is largely due to increased awareness about their energy efficiency and the level of demand seeing the price point become more accessible. Not everyone is sold, however. Standing at an induction range, even the best chefs have to rethink their basic moves. New technology can be very daunting, especially when it’s something as integral to a business as a cooktop or range. Here we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this increasingly popular cooking method.

Is it me or does it seem like fatbergs are only getting bigger and badder -- that the problem is only getting worse?

Back in 2013, when the word fatberg hadn’t even made it into the dictionary, a berg found in a sewer in Kingston-Upon-Thames was proclaimed the biggest in British history – the size of a bus, it weighed in at 15 tonnes.

Since then we’ve been finding fatbergs which are over ten times that. The Whitechapel monster which hit headlines in September 2017 weighed in at 130 tonnes and only held the record for six months before an even bigger berg was found in South Bank in April 2018. In February of this year, a fatberg found in Liverpool trumped all others, weighing in at 400 tonnes.

Commercial refrigeration like any other appliance at your disposal requires a specific atmosphere in order to operate optimally.

Each piece of commercial refrigeration is now designed to not only serve different purposes but to also operate in different spaces and in different parts of the world under differing conditions.

This has created the need for regulations which require that manufacturers include proper labelling in the form of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (or MEPS) as part of responsible manufacturing and usage for efficiency purposes. Such labels should include the designated climate class.