Commercial Refrigeration and Food Safety: Understanding Temperature Performance
Commercial refrigeration has a straightforward job: keep food at the correct temperature.
In practice, achieving that consistently in a busy professional kitchen is considerably more demanding. Doors are opened throughout service, fresh stock is loaded into cabinets, ambient temperatures rise and the refrigeration system must continually recover while maintaining safe and consistent product temperatures.
This is why understanding the temperature performance of a commercial refrigerator is important when selecting equipment.
For operators, dealers and consultants, specifications such as M-class, climate class and operating temperature range provide useful information about how a cabinet has been designed and tested to perform.
What is an M-class refrigeration rating?
The M-class system is used to describe the temperature performance of a refrigerated cabinet.
Rather than simply describing what type of food should be stored inside the refrigerator, the classification relates to the product temperature range that the cabinet is capable of maintaining.
This distinction is important.
A refrigeration specification does not necessarily say:
- This cabinet is for meat
- This cabinet is for dairy
- This cabinet is for prepared food
Instead, the important question is:
What maximum temperature does the food need to be maintained at?
The cabinet then needs to provide the appropriate level of temperature control for that application.
Generally, a colder and more tightly controlled temperature class provides a greater margin for products that require more demanding chilled storage conditions.
Why colder refrigeration can use more energy
Maintaining a lower product temperature places greater demands on a refrigeration system.
For example, an M1-rated cabinet is required to provide tighter temperature control and maintain a lower maximum product temperature.
This means the refrigeration system has to remove more heat from the cabinet.
It also operates at a lower refrigeration temperature and has to work harder to recover following events such as:
- Repeated door openings
- Loading warmer products
- Periods of high kitchen activity
- Exposure to warmer ambient conditions.
As a result, a cabinet designed to provide colder and tighter temperature control may consume more energy than a cabinet designed for a less demanding temperature range.
That does not necessarily mean the cabinet is less efficient.
It is delivering a more demanding level of refrigeration performance.
When comparing refrigeration equipment, energy consumption therefore needs to be considered alongside the temperature performance the cabinet is designed to provide.
What are refrigeration climate classes?
M-class ratings relate to product temperature.
Climate classes describe something different: the ambient conditions in which the cabinet is tested.
These conditions include both room temperature and humidity.
This matters because commercial kitchens can be challenging environments for refrigeration equipment. As ambient temperature and humidity increase, the refrigeration system has to work harder to maintain the required internal product temperature.
A cabinet’s climate class therefore helps provide an indication of the operating conditions under which its declared performance has been tested.
For demanding professional kitchens, this can be an important part of the specification.
What is tested on a commercial refrigerator?
Commercial refrigeration testing is intended to establish whether a cabinet can maintain its declared performance under defined ambient conditions.
Testing typically considers several areas.
Product temperature control – Can the cabinet maintain the required product temperature consistently?
Energy consumption – How much energy is required to achieve that temperature performance?
Ambient capability – Can the cabinet continue to operate effectively when the surrounding kitchen temperature increases?
Temperature recovery – How effectively can the refrigerator recover following door openings, product loading or changes in operating conditions?
Condensation control – Can the cabinet manage moisture and condensation effectively under the conditions for which it has been designed?
Operational stability – Can it maintain consistent refrigeration performance over prolonged operation?
The higher the climate class and the more demanding the product temperature requirement, the harder the refrigeration system has to work.
The SKOPE ReFlex advantage
One of the key advantages of SKOPE ReFlex commercial refrigeration is its broad operating temperature capability.
ReFlex cabinets offer operation down to -2°C within the standard range.
This gives operators greater flexibility when specifying refrigeration for products that require colder storage conditions, including fresh meat, without automatically having to move to a separate dedicated meat cabinet specification.
Where some standard commercial refrigerators only operate down to approximately +2°C, ReFlex provides a significantly broader usable temperature range.
This allows a single refrigeration platform to support a wider variety of foodservice applications.
For dealers and consultants, it can also simplify specification by providing greater flexibility within a standard commercial refrigeration range.
A wider temperature range for different foods
Different foods perform best at different storage temperatures.
Correct temperature management is important not only for food safety, but also for maintaining product quality and helping to minimise unnecessary food waste.
SKOPE ReFlex refrigerators provide an operating range of approximately:
-2°C to +15°C
This broad temperature range allows individual cabinets to be configured for a variety of applications.
Temperature control through SKOPE-connect®
ReFlex refrigeration can also be configured using the SKOPE-connect® app.
This gives operators the ability to optimise the refrigerator for the type of product being stored, taking advantage of the cabinet’s wider operating temperature range.
For businesses that regularly change menus, product categories or refrigeration requirements, this added flexibility can make the same refrigeration platform suitable for a broader range of applications.
It also helps operators make more informed decisions about how their chilled products are stored.
Balancing refrigeration performance and efficiency
Commercial refrigeration operates continuously and plays a critical role in maintaining safe food storage.
Energy efficiency is therefore important, but it cannot be considered in isolation.
Reducing refrigeration performance simply to achieve a lower headline energy figure can introduce compromises elsewhere.
Professional foodservice refrigeration needs to balance several requirements:
- Accurate product temperature control
- Energy consumption
- High ambient performance
- Temperature recovery
- Condensation management
- Practical everyday operation
- Safe servicing and maintenance.
SKOPE ReFlex has been designed to balance these requirements rather than concentrating on a single performance figure.
The result is refrigeration designed for real commercial environments where kitchen temperatures, service patterns and operating demands can change considerably throughout the day.
Refrigeration designed for demanding foodservice environments
Choosing a commercial refrigerator should involve more than comparing cabinet dimensions and purchase price.
Understanding temperature classification, ambient capability and operating range gives dealers and operators a clearer picture of what a refrigerator is actually capable of delivering.
With a broad -2°C to +15°C temperature range, high ambient capability and flexible temperature management, SKOPE ReFlex provides a versatile refrigeration solution for a wide variety of professional foodservice applications.
It allows operators to select the temperature their product requires while retaining the flexibility to adapt the cabinet as their requirements change.
Talk to Hubbard Systems about SKOPE
Need help specifying the right commercial refrigeration?
Hubbard Systems is the exclusive UK distributor for SKOPE commercial refrigeration.
Our team can help dealers, consultants and foodservice operators identify the right cabinet, operating temperature and configuration for their application.
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