IQF berries and mushrooms

 

IQF berries are made as intact components, packed and frozen according to IQF technology at a temperature of -35-40°С until the product gets -18°С inside, the finished product is supposed to be stored and sold at this temperature.

Fitness of the wild berries and mushrooms for further freezing is determined by their specific (genetic) features. They are:

• balanced taste, distinctive aroma, nice appearance,
• high content of solid matters (including sugars),
• bioactive substances,
• minimal change of water-retention capacity after freezing,
• high content of substances providing pulp body and wholeness of outer peel.

Freezing is based on temperatures lower than cryoscopic, it stops or slows down many biochemical and microbiologic processes. Low temperatures specify effective decrease of quantity and quality loss. Quality of products depends on condition of primary materials, thus the berries that don’t meet the requirements of Ministry of Health of Russian Federation on residual quantity of toxic materials are not allowed into processing.

IQF products of high quality are result of fast and superfast freezing.Organoleptic characteristics of IQF berries and mushrooms are close to characteristics of fresh berries and mushrooms. Bioactive substances keep well in IQF berries and mushrooms. IQF technology also allows us to use the most economical types of package materials.

The processing flowchart (freeing and cleaning) includes cooling, shock freezing in a freezer (at a temperature of -35-40°С, mechanical cleaning, calibration, additional freezing in a freezing tunnel, electronic color sorting, visual inspection, packaging and marking. Mushrooms are sorted, cleaned, frozen and packed at harvesting units.

Pre-cooling (from summer and autumn outdoor temperature +15-+25°С to 0-+2°С) is an important stage before freezing the berries. The extra moist is removed from the berries’ surface and the berries are collected into lots for further freezing. We use powerful chillers that are able to chill up to 250 tons of berries per day.

Karelia Berries uses technologies that let us freeze products within minimum amount of time in a cold air flow. Specific characteristics of the process are:

• Air temperature in a fast freezing tunnel within -37-42°С,
• Average speed of air flow of 3.6 meters per second,
• Freezing duration 30-240 minutes,
• Temperature inside the product after freezing -18°С.

 

The procedure let us:

1. Save the quality of the product, its organoleptic characteristics,
2. Keep the body and taste of the product,
3. Increase the shelf-life of the product,
4. Avoid losses of liquid/juice during freezing,
5. Lower losses of liquid/juice after defrosting

High quality of frozen berries is provided by new technology line CabinPlant (Denmark) with processing capacity of 5 tons per hour. The frozen berries travel through system of strainers and grids, and all the small, unripe, overripe berries and stems, leaves, stones etc. are gradually removed as well as the berries that don’t meet the requirements of the standards because of size. Then any metallic impurities are to be removed with the help of powerful magnets. Then any light waste like leaves or moss is to be winnowed away. It takes 10-12 minutes for the berries to travel along the line since supplying the uncleaned berries to the line until the packing into bags and stacking them. It means the berries need to be additionally frozen, so the line is equipped with fast freezer with inner temperature of -40°С. After that the berries are supplied into special machinery where the stems are removed. Then the berries are passed to sorting unit kept by SORTEX (UK) and Best (Belgium) machinery. The berries are sorted with the help of optic, laser and infrared cameras upon the color, the size and the shape of the berries. The berries that meet quality requirements are supplied onto control section where the berries pass visual inspection. The control section is equipped with special vacuum device that allows removal if needed. The inspection supervisor can stop the cleaning line if many defects were found out. The cleaned and sorted berries are automatically packed into paper craft bags (25 kg) , carton boxes (10 kg) or into retail packages of 200-300 g. Each package goes through metal detecting archway installed in the end of production line.

All the forest waste, stems, dried berries are almost completely sifted out during cleaning and sorting. Further classification is done regarding defected berries (wrinkled, rotten, regelated, spoiled by insects, crumpled, with cracked surface). We take 9 samples (300 g each) per standard 825 kg pallet (33 bags, 25 kg each) to be tested. The processed berries are classified upon results of testing into Extra class, No. 1 and No. 2. The berries of lower Press class are the berries that haven’t been processed on the line or the berries that were sifted out during processing (as small or unripe). These berries can be used in different types of production.

Storage of cleaned and packed IQF berries and mushrooms is carried out in freezers at a temperature of –18°С. The IQF berries and mushrooms are transported by own transport means properly equipped for frozen products transportation at a temperature of -18°С and in accordance with rules of transportation for short-life products.