Thanks to the ten-year research conducted together with the University of Parma, “Unox has ensured in-depth and complete know-how on food preservation,” says Mario Cammarota, head of the research ream. To preserve food properly, it is necessary to govern three main factors: safety to feed, persistence of food and gusto.
In terms of food safety, the preservation of hot food is much safer than food stored through the cold chain, because, unlike the refrigerator or freezer, which simply slows down or blocks bacterial proliferation, temperatures above 58°C eliminate it. As for the guarantee of keeping the foods at the right consistency, as if they were just cooked, a meticulous temperature control is necessary until the precision threshold of the tenth of a degree is reached, the primary feature of EVEREO®, the high-temperature maintainer for food that preserves foods at the temperature at which you want to serve them.
To preserve even the taste and aromas without cooling the food, UNOX has created MULTI.Day Hot Vacuum, the first and only system capable of vacuum sealing freshly cooked food, still hot.
“Preserving healthy food was not the only challenge to be overcome, the question of taste and aromas remained open. Food in contact with air, in fact, is subject to oxidation processes that spoil its appearance, taste and aromas. And that’s where we checked in. We immediately thought of the world of vacuum, unfortunately discovering that there were no systems capable of vacuum sealing containers or bags with food still hot inside. And we do not want to cool the food, to avoid crossing the critical area of bacterial proliferation,” explains Nicola Lai, corporate chef and marketing team leader.
Handling vacuuming processes
Unox has overcome the criticality by leaping the concept of vacuum, as Nicola Nanti, project leader, explains, “not by sucking but by generating a localized depression, exploiting the high-speed exit of compressed air through a calibrated nozzle”.
It thus becomes possible to cook in the traditional way inside steel trays and at the end of cooking seal the food under vacuum using MULTI.Day Hot Vacuum, the first professional equipment in the world able to handle vacuuming processes with still hot food.
To date, the processes of food transformation that underlie the organization of a professional kitchen are basically two. The first is the so-called “express preparation” where food is cooked and served immediately. A process that guarantees very high-quality levels but also an expensive and difficult-to-apply.
The second method is based on the concept of cook & chill or cooking, blasting – at positive or negative temperatures – and subsequent regeneration of food before serving. This simplifies the management of the raw equipment, facilitates the organization of high productivity days, allows a punctual rotation of stocks and is certainly applicable to all types of catering: a la carte restaurant, hotel, catering, QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), delicatessens etc. This standard, however, implies the use of more equipment and, above all, requires a qualified staff not only during the production process but also during the pre-service regeneration.
“We imagine how the organization of a catering can change, for the better, by conveying and maintaining hot food, ready to be served at any time, respecting the required quality standards. It is an innovation that facilitates the organization of work for the whole world of catering. Moreover, the savings that are obtained both in energy, given that cooling and heating is a more expensive path than simply keeping a food warm, and in terms of personnel involved in the regeneration of cold dishes is very evident,” comments Lai.
Among the different subjects-customers chosen as testers of the MULTI.Day system. Day there is no shortage of starred restaurants, where EVEREO® is used for special treatments, for example those of meat.
Today, thanks to the combination EVEREO® and MULTI.Day, every kitchen can cook exactly as it has always done and count on a real hot refrigerator that keeps food ready to be consumed, in any place, at any time.
This new technology made at UNOX represents a revolution and, in fact, has been awarded the SMART label 2019, the recognition of innovation in the hospitality sector promoted by HOST – Fiera Milano in collaboration with POLI.design. The Award is given to those products that emerge for distinctive characteristics in terms of functionality, technologies, environmental sustainability, ethics, or social implications.
Further details:
For more information, please visit www.unox.com.
