When a freshly slaughtered carcass is initially chilled to its storage temperature, it will lose weight through moisture loss to the atmosphere. Depending on the chilling process, this can be up to 3% of its overall weight. The highest losses will occur in the early stages when the temperature difference between the carcass and its surrounding chill store atmosphere is at its greatest.
By raising the humidity of the air around the carcasses to between 90-95%RH moisture loss from the meat is inhibited and weight losses can be reduced to less than 1%,
This will have an immediate impact on the profitability of an abattoir operation, as it can stop around 4kg of product evaporating from a typical side of beef during the chill down process.
As well as improving profits through reduced weight loss a higher humidity in a chill store will improve the thermal conductivity of the air. This results in the carcass reaching its storage temperature more rapidly, which in turn reduces refrigeration energy costs and inhibits microbial growth on the meat.
Benefits of Condair humidification in abattoirs include:
- Reduction in primary cooling weight losses to around 1%
- Immediate increase in profitability
- Improved thermal transfer from the carcass and shorter chill cyles
- Reduced refrigeration energy costs from faster cooling
- Reduced microbial growth from faster cooling
- Extremely hygienic product design for total confidence
- Comprehensive service of advice, design, supply, installation, commissioning, maintenance and spares supply
