Food Manufacturing

Food manufacturing and processing has a diverse range of chilled water system requirements. Whether it is batch processing such as cooling after pasteurising milk products, rapid cooling or accurate close temperature control, a custom chiller is often the best solution for reliable performance to ensure a quality product.
When you purchase a chiller from Summit Industrial Chillers, you can specify your precise cooling requirements and have a custom designed chiller built for your food manufacturing process.
We have had experience in a number of food cooling applications at mushroom farms, small goods producers, confectionery and chocolate manufacturers, bakeries, breweries, vegetable processors and packaging companies as well as wineries.

Mushroom Farms

Air cooled industrial chillers can be used to control temperatures during the composting process or can be used to 
control growing room temperatures very accurately. Cooling systems with chilled water have the benefit of very accurate close control and the ease of piping chilled water to anywhere in the plant. Chillers from Summit Industrial use screw compressors from which can result in substantial power savings.

Small goods

Medium temperature industrial water chillers are used for batch cooling in either jacketed tanks or with cooling tunnels or fan coil units. Low temperature industrial glycol chillers are used to cool vacuum tumblers used in the curing process for ham, bacon, and similar products. Summit Industrial manufactures glycol chillers at both medium temperature and low temperatures.

Confectionery and Chocolate

Medium temperature industrial chillers are used for applications like batch cooling for jacketed tanks and for cooling specialist food machinery like cocoa grinders. Low temperature industrial glycol chillers are used for cooling extrusion lines like licorice production facilities.

Bakeries

Chilled water from a water chiller is used instead of ambient temperature water in the dough mixing process. Because of the significant heat generated in the mixing process, the use of a water chiller allows dough to be mixed for longer before it reaches a critical heat. The increased mixing time means a higher quality product can be produced for any given grade of flour, allowing bakers to improve product quality. There is a Summit Industrial water chiller in hundreds of bakeries all over Australia. These small units are pre-commissioned allowing the water chiller operator to just plug in, fit water pipes, and turn on.

Vegetable Processing and Packaging

Chilled water can be used to maintain temperatures during washing and packaging leading to a higher quality finished product. The chilled water can then be filtered and cooled though the water chiller for use in the next batch.

Wineries

A water chiller is used by wineries in two areas so the design needs to be flexible. When grapes are first picked they need to be rapidly cooled so that the fermentation process can be managed. Grapes enter large jacketed tanks from the harvest at 20-30°C and need to be cooled to close to 0°C quickly. Summit Industrial has developed a process water chiller specifically for this purpose. A water chiller can also be used in regulating temperatures during fermentation. Wine is fermented in jacketed tanks with the chilled water glycol system providing adequate heat dissipation to regulate the temperatures to optimum levels.

Breweries

A superior tasting beer needs the best possible brewing conditions, and temperature control plays a crucial part in this process. A water chiller can be used to maintain temperatures in the desired range for controlling yeast production, and producing the desired flavour and clarity of the finished product.