Food can be preserved in many different ways both fresh and cooked using different techniques, some millennial, so that they can be consumed for a certain time. In this way we can almost always have seasonal products, those difficult to get or sometimes those from offers that invite you to buy larger quantities than necessary.

We can divide the forms of conservation into two large groups:

 

Conservation techniques of always.

They are those techniques that have been used for centuries and with excellent results. They were created in times when there was no way to refrigerate and freeze and have remained until today with hardly any change as they were hundreds of years ago.

The main ones are:

• With the use of salt. It is the most used technique in antiquity. Salt removes moisture from food. It is used mostly with fish, salted fish and is used with both solid salt and brine. Two of the most famous products preserved in this way would be the Serrano ham or the cod
• Smoking is another of the oldest techniques. The smoke produced by combustion eliminates microbes from food. This technique that is usually done with firewood enhances the flavors and uses a lot with meats and fish. Examples could be Iberian loins, chorizos, or smoked salmon.
• With the oil an extraordinary protection of the food is achieved by preventing its contact with the air. It is not exactly a preservative but what it does is isolate. It is ideal for meats, fish, cheeses, etc.
• Sun drying or dehydration is a method used to remove water from food which prevents the development of microorganisms and the activity of enzymes
• Other techniques that have been used for a long time is with vinegar, pickled, in sugar used for example for the conservation of olives, fish or fruits.

 

Modern conservation techniques

They are those that started with the development of electricity and manufacturing processes and changed forever our way of feeding ourselves, by allowing us to dispose of any product, almost at any time outside of its normal period and in perfect conditions of consumption, without affecting its flavor or its main qualities.

The main ones are:

• Freezing by crystallizing the water contained in the food by solidifying it. In frozen foods microorganisms can not act. This system allows to preserve both fresh and cooked foods but if it is not used together with another technique, such as vacuum packaging, over time they lose flavor and aroma because the enzymes continue to act by not being completely destroyed.
• Vacuum Method by which by means of a vacuum packing machine the air is removed from a special bag or a steel or glass container. When the air is removed, oxygen is also eliminated, which in addition to producing the oxidation of the food, allows the life of microbes. This method lengthens the life of both fresh and cooked foods and avoids the problems caused by freezing and that we have named above. In addition, this method allows cooking using the technique of sousvide or vacuum cooking at low temperature every day more used because it enhances the flavors, maintains the textures, avoids waste and improves general hygiene and organization at home and restaurants.

 

 

Main conservation teams.

In addition to vacuum packaging machines and universal freezers, refrigerators, cabinets, display cases, etc. other very useful equipment is used in the process of conservation and preservation of foods such as:

 

 

Packaging machines - wrapping machines

Perfect for correct packaging of fruits, vegetables, etc. The product can only be directly wrapped in the protective film or in a barqueta by units or several at the same time.

These devices usually have a heat plate and a cutting resistance. The barqueta and the product are wrapped with the food plastic, the heat plate seals it and the resistance cuts it to the next one.

Perfect for small industries where manual labor is used and for supermarkets to improve the presentation of both fruits and vegetables on the shelves. We have all the spare parts for packaging and wrapping machines Vail and Lovero.

Wrappers - Vail and Lovero packers for fruits and vegetables

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thermosealers bar trays
The food can be kept fresh or cooked in trays or drumsticks that are hermetically sealed by sealing a plastic film - heat sealing - so that they are isolated and protected from external agents.

The traysealers can be simple and with the sole purpose of presenting the food in a hygienic and attractive way or they can be more complex and that they also pursue a longer life of the food. This is done with two techniques that pursue the same goal. The gas sweep and the vacuum.

Gas-flushed traysealers are devices that inject an inert gas such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide into the tray and push out the air contained inside it. When doing this process, most of the oxygen has been expelled, which lengthens the life of the food for a determined extra time.

Vacuum traysealers use a method that consists of first emptying the inside of the tray to eliminate oxygen and then introducing an inert gas inside it. the introduction of said inert gas is for the sole purpose that the barqueta is not crushed by external pressure having removed the air that was inside.

This method allows the same benefits as vacuum packaging in bags but it does so in plastic containers or trays, which can be very interesting for the presentation and to prevent them from being deformed or crushed inside the vacuum bags.

 

 Sammic traysealers - from 792 euros with two molds included

 

 

 

    Ramón traysealers without gas, with gas sweeping and with vacuum and gas - from 875 euros

 

 

 

  Barquetas (trays) for Ramón and Sammic traysealers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thermal impulse sealers
They are very useful devices in all types of businesses and small industries; economic and with hardly maintenance.

They are specifically used to close bags by sealing them by means of heat - heat sealing - by means of an electrical resistance and a sealing time control to be able to work with plastics of different thicknesses. We work with the most prestigious brands in the market: Lovero, Vail and KF

We also have all the spare parts for the Vail sealers and the spare parts for the Lovero sealers. From the cutting resistors to the transformer or the electronic boards.

There are two types:

• Arm manuals The mouth of the bag is placed over the sealing ring and an arm is lowered that ignites the resistance and allows sealing.
• Semi-automatic Where a mechanism is activated that closes a top bar on the bottom by squeezing the mouth of the bag and also producing the seal. These can have a built-in pedal, they can be manual and automatic, with printing, with adjustable heads.

  Vail and Lovero thermal arm sealers

 

     Semiautomatic welders Lovero

 

 

 

 

 

Blast chillers

They are refrigeration or freezing equipment specially designed to reduce the temperature of a food at the highest possible speed.

In vacuum cooking one of the key moments, if cooked food is not going to consume immediately, is the conservation of it. The temperatures at which it is cooked, normally between 60 and 80 degrees, are a perfect breeding ground for all types of microorganisms that could seriously affect our health. Therefore it is essential to reduce these temperatures at the highest possible speed. This prevents these microorganisms from proliferating and makes it a totally reliable conservation method.

A home mode is done by submerging the bag in which vacuum cooking has been done in ice water.

The method used in a restaurant is by means of a blast chiller that can take the food from a cooking temperature of 80 degrees to a storage temperature of 3 or 4 degrees in a short space of time.

We work with two of the most important global manufacturers in temperature blast chillers for restaurants. They are the prestigious brand Guipuzcoana Sammic and the equally prestigious brand of industrial cold Cordobesa Infrico

 

 

Blast chillers Sammic and Infrico

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shrink wrapping machines

Shrink wrapping is a technique by which a food product or not, is put in a special plastic bag to shrink. This bag is sealed and then by the action of the heat the bag "shrinks" and adheres to the product being attached to it and giving the sensation of being like an outer skin of it.

Vail YK manual shrink wrap