Freezing cheese

[luckymix]

Greetings- an interesting but very real one- especially if you are the cheese producer & your product is delivered by a large logistics company!! Frozen cheese- is not a good thing- dries out!

300g of cheese similar to cheddar (could be approximated as water??) at 2C. Put into a large fridge at air temp -23C. How long until cheese block (even surface) becomes -3C?

OK then if the cheese is covered by thin layer of wax, ok which is the covered in a thermoplastic covering?

We are looking for engineering indications 1 hour 6 hours 12 hours?? etc.

Q = h . A . (T1 - T2)

Q heat transfer rate
h heat transfer coeff.
A surafce area
T T air
T cheese surface/ wax?

Any indications or experience appreciated.
thx.

 

[MortenA]

If its for real life and you are dealing with 300 g blocks of cheese - why dont you just do a test?

Best regards

Morten

 

[luckymix]

Hi, am doing a couple of tests with some blocks but am also intrigued at the engineering approach to take- shouldnt be diffcult, if somehow you get an approx thermal coefficient and capacity? This is my gut feel, so putting out the bait. Thanks for input.

 

[jay165]

If I recall, the ASHRAE fundamentals handbook has data on meat,dairy and other food products such specific heats, enthalpy and heat transfer coeffecients, etc. I no longer have a copy.