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70 FEDA News & Views are frustrated because they can't keep their food out of the danger zone," says McLaughlin. "They're taking out batches of soups and sauces from kettle drums and plac- ing them in cold storage units to quickly lower their temperature. All that's doing is causing the condens- ing unit and evaporator coil to work harder than intended and decreas- ing the life of the refrigeration equip- ment by at least a third." Thermo-Kool's reputation as the 'pioneer of preassembly' has earned its walk-ins high praise from dealers, consultants and operators. For five consecutive years, they've selected it "Best in Class" in FE&S' annual Best in Class study—but rarely will you hear McLaughlin refer to one of his premier pieces of equipment as simply a walk-in. Instead, he prefers the term cold storage unit. "For several decades, I referred to them as walk-ins but now that I've been engrained in the science of cold processing, I like to put the emphasis on the words cold storage," the CEO says. "Many people fail to realize—on the residential side and the commercial—that a refrigerator and a freezer are for storing food that is already at a chilled tem- perature. When hot food is placed in a cold stor- age unit, it usually cannot safely and efficiently chill the product." When food is left to chill at room temperature and then stored in a walk-in or removed from an oven and placed directly into a walk-in, it crawls through the danger zone (140 F to 41 F) at a slower pace. Bacteria flourish in this range and can double in num- ber in as little as 20 minutes. Thermo-Kool's roll-in blast chill- ers and shock freezers come as stand-alone units or can be built into a walk-in cooler or freezer. Both can accommodate almost any mobile rack size, allowing food- service operators the flexibility to batch cook product in their combi and transfer it directly into the blast chiller/shock freezer. "You can blast chill and store it for days in a Thermo-Kool cooler; you can shock freeze it and store it for months in a Thermo-Kool freezer," says McLaughlin, adding that what sepa- rates his lines from others is that Thermo-Kool's reach-ins and roll-ins are equipped with the technology to blast chill or shock freeze. "All of our reach-in models can both blast- chill and shock freeze. Our roll-ins will do the same with the correct condensing unit and do not require an additional unit like other brands for a holding cycle once the chill or freeze cycle is completed," he says. For efficiency and ease of use, Thermo-Kool's models also are designed with the refrigeration sys- tem and controller located above the cabinet in a no spill/splash zone. The condenser coil in a refrigeration system is responsible for remov- ing heat from the unit. "If it's on the bottom, below the cabinet," says McLaughlin, "it has to work harder to bring down the temperature. Moving the condenser unit to the top and ventilating it all around, allows for easier heat removal. It helps save the life of the compres- sor and reduces energy consump- tion, plus it allows for easy clean- ing and periodic maintenance of the refrigeration. If it's not easily accessible, those two items may be ignored by kitchen staff." Moving Past the Educational Phase Like its equal on the hot side, the combi, blast chillers have been mainstays in European kitchens for decades because of their effi- ciency and functionality on the cold side. Large batches of food can be cooked in advance, chilled and then served during peak hours; fruits and vegetables can be purchased at the height of the season and chilled for later use. "What's also important to a lot of chefs and popular restaurant brands is that blast chillers/shock freezers help preserve the qual- ity, aroma and taste of food when it's rethermed and served," says McLaughlin, who hopes that more smaller operators in the U.S. will fol- low the lead of high-end restaurants, large chains and institutions. Blast- chilling technology didn't start work- ing its way into commercial kitch- ens until the early 2000s but most large-scale operations now see it as a necessity, particularly when it comes to meeting HACCP guide- lines and the ever-present need to find short cuts to compensate for dips in labor. "Others, like independents and smaller school districts, would like to have the equipment but it can be expensive," says McLaughlin. MODEL TK3C-2 MULTI-CAVITY REACH- IN UNITS - EACH CAVITY OPERATES INDEPENDENTLY WITH ITS OWN CONTROLLER AND CONDENSING UNIT, ALLOWING FOR CONTINUOUS FLOW OF PRODUCT FROM OVENS TO BLAST CHILLERS.