Cold storage equipment is a huge industry that impacts almost all manufactured goods and food products. Cold storage encompasses large frozen or refrigerated warehouses to small home refrigerators. Keeping Ice cream products frozen from the manufacturing facility to the point of sale freezer at the grocery store is crucial. Ice cream needs to remain frozen within a temperature range -20⁰F and -30⁰F. Storing ice cream in such low temperatures allows the product to remain stable indefinitely. Temperature fluctuation is the single most damaging factor of storage and transportation. When ice cream starts to thaw the ice crystals start to melt. Upon refreezing the ice crystals reform larger and harder than they were originally. This causes degrading of the original creamy texture.
Cold storage is also used in the manufacturing process of ice cream. The hardening process occurs at the end of production. The ice cream is extruded with the consistency of soft serve into the packaging. The containers are then moved into the hardening room, which is a super low temperature blast freezer. The finished product retains a smooth creamy texture by quick freezing the ice cream into solid blocks. Ice cream is usually kept in the hardening room from 6 to 10 hours. It is then moved to a cold storage facility where it waits to be transported to a store for purchase.
