Meat&Poultry - January 2013 - 87

EQUIPMENT ESSENTIALS • ADVERTORIAL
Cost-effective investment
Pocino Foods fi nds new IQF “wave” freezer from Linde ends fl ighted-freezer headaches
Now in its 80th year, Pocino Foods,
based in City of Industry, Calif., has
produced premium quality deli meats
and innovative meat products since
1933. Time-honored family recipes
have been passed down through the
generations, rich with ethnic heritage,
which has established Pocino’s
products as high quality items.
Today this includes
traditional Italian, Hispanic,
Asian and uniquely American
meat products – from
individually quick frozen
(IQF) items to deli meats and
dry sausage – sold to retail
and foodservice customers,
and to further processors
and institutional markets
for pizzas, frozen meals
and other prepared foods.
Close attention to freezing
operations and plant hygiene help
ensure quality.
As part of an $8 million plant
expansion last year, the company
added an additional quality control
lab, completely isolated raw and
finished goods processing and
reviewed other areas for improvement.
One of those was updating its IQF line
for cooked sausage and meat crumble,
meatballs, and sliced and diced beef
products.
“It was time to replace the flighted
freezer. It didn’t have high enough
capacity. CO2
snow carryover was an
issue, and we wanted a freezer that
was easier to clean and more sanitary,”
said Jerry Pocino, vice president and
son of President Frank Pocino, whose
father founded the company.
Out with the old
Linde North America evaluated
the operation and installed the new
Cryoline® CW (CRYOWAVE™) IQF
freezer in a transition last summer.
The patented Cryowave is the first
cryogenic tunnel freezer
with rolling-wave action
to keep IQF items separate
as they freeze. The rollingwave
is fully adjustable and
gently tumbles Pocino’s
cooked products as they
are quick frozen to lock in
moisture and ensure each
piece is individually frozen. After quickfreezing,
products are sent to a packoff
area for weighing and sealing into
bags, ranging from 8 oz. to 10 lbs.
At Pocino, some meats are pre-
cooked and diced before going
through the Cryowave tunnel
freezer. Others, like meat crumble,
are extruded and continuous-cooked
before spreading onto a conveyor on
their way to the quick freezer.
With the old flighted freezer, CO2
snow carryover would require clean
out several times a day, contributing
to product losses and cutting
into operational efficiencies. The
hygienically designed Cryowave
freezer uses smooth internal surfaces
to help eliminate areas that can trap
food particles and help reduce the
chance of contamination. The top of
the IQF tunnel freezer raises vertically
to provide complete access for
cleaning, and internal areas are sloped
to a center drain for easy washout.
Pocino Foods runs two, 8-hour shifts,
five days a week, and the IQF line
produces different cooked products
every day – meatballs, pizza crumble
and sliced and diced meat. The Linde
food team provided training and
worked with Pocino to program the
new IQF freezer for each product using
an easy-to-use touchpad. Pocino says
the new Cryowave freezer requires
cleaning just once daily.
The Cryowave freezer can be
equipped to use liquid nitrogen,
but carbon dioxide was preferred in
this case. The installation included
ductwork for venting, and Linde’s
telemetry-based gas monitoring
system. The Tel-tank™ system allows
Pocino to monitor consumption of
CO2
per shift, per hour, or per pound of
product through a customer portal.
“We were looking for a freezer that
would increase throughput, efficiency
of CO2
clean,” Pocino says. “We chose Linde,
because we felt it met all those needs,
and it has.”
, be more sanitary, and easier to
Linde North America Inc.
575 Mountain Ave • Murray Hill, NJ 07974
(800) 755-9277 • www.lindefood.com

http://www.lindefood.com

Meat&Poultry - January 2013

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