Industries / Commercial Kitchens
Refrigeration for Commercial and Production Kitchens
Production and catering kitchens ask more of refrigeration than any restaurant: continuous loading of warm product, rapid cooling requirements, high ambient heat and equipment that never gets a quiet day.
Commercial focus
Equipment / load / timing
JNF Refrigeration works with production kitchens, caterers, commissaries and food manufacturers across the Northern Beaches, particularly around the Brookvale, Cromer and Warriewood industrial areas, on the refrigeration that a production schedule depends on: heavy-duty uprights and roll-in units, blast chillers and freezers, walk-in cool rooms and freezer rooms, and the preparation refrigeration on the line.
Equipment we look after
Cooling product safely at volume
A production kitchen's refrigeration is asked to remove heat that a restaurant's never sees: trays of cooked product going in hot, many times a day. The Food Standards Code requires cooked food to be cooled from 60°C to 21°C within two hours and from 21°C to 5°C within a further four, and a blast chiller is the equipment built to do that. A storage fridge asked to do the same job will warm everything else in it while it tries.
When a blast chiller slows, the whole schedule slips behind it. The faults follow the same logic as any refrigeration: a condenser that cannot reject heat, an evaporator icing because the defrost has failed or because the door is open too long, a fan that has weakened, or a refrigeration fault behind them. Noting how long a cycle takes now against how long it used to is the most useful thing an operator can tell us.
Ambient heat, grease and run hours
Production kitchens routinely run at ambient temperatures in the mid-thirties with ovens, kettles and fryers sharing the room. Every piece of refrigeration in it is rejecting heat into air that is already hot, through a condenser that collects grease-bound dust faster than anywhere else in hospitality. Servicing intervals here are the shortest in the trade, and three months is a starting point rather than a stretch.
Equipment that runs seven days without a quiet period also accumulates wear faster regardless of how clean it is kept. Fans, contactors and door hardware reach the end of their life sooner, and the value of planned servicing is largely in replacing them in a scheduled week rather than during a production run.
Keeping a production schedule when a unit fails
The first question in a production kitchen breakdown is what is in the unit and how long it has. A walk-in room full of raw product that stays shut holds for hours; a blast chiller mid-cycle does not. Move product according to your food safety plan, record temperatures and times, and call with the equipment, the reading and what changed.
Where a kitchen is being refitted or relocated, JNF can also assess, move and recommission refrigeration so the plant matches the new layout rather than being squeezed into it. Relocation is often the point at which the question of whether older equipment is worth moving gets an honest answer.
Frequently asked questions
Do you service blast chillers and blast freezers?
Yes. Blast chillers and freezers are refrigeration systems like any other, with the same condensers, evaporators, fans, defrost and controls, working under a much heavier load. Tell us the make and model, how long a cycle is taking now compared with before, and whether the unit is icing.
What is the cooling rule for cooked food?
Under the Food Standards Code, cooked potentially hazardous food must be cooled from 60°C to 21°C within two hours and from 21°C to 5°C within a further four hours. A blast chiller is designed to meet that; a storage fridge is not, and using one for the job warms everything else in it.
Our kitchen runs at 35°C. Is that why the fridges struggle?
Largely, yes. Refrigeration rejects heat to the air around its condenser, and the hotter that air, the harder and longer the system runs for the same result. High ambient heat also accelerates grease and dust build-up on coils. Ventilation around the plant, clearance and short servicing intervals are the practical defences.
Can you relocate refrigeration when a kitchen is refitted?
Yes. JNF has relocated and recommissioned refrigeration plant for a production kitchen, including rooftop units. A refit is also the right moment to assess whether older equipment is worth moving or should be replaced as part of the project.
Where this work takes us
Commercial kitchens are concentrated in these parts of the Northern Beaches, and each suburb page covers what is particular about working there.