1. Pre-cooling at Source: The Race Against Time for Freshness
Early in the morning at the farm, farmers gently pick me, quickly pack me into boxes, and load them onto trucks for short-distance transport to the processing plant. Blueberries are small and heat up and deteriorate rapidly. We don't need complicated pre-cooling procedures, though not all fruits and veggies are as resilient as I am.
🔺 Orchard of CBFI client in Central Asia
My heat-sensitive cousin-lychee-is the star of pre-cooling. Once picked, polyphenol oxidase in its peel starts to work. Without prompt cooling, its bright red skin turns brown within a day, ruining both appearance and flavour.
Just-harvested lychees have a core temperature as high as 26℃, even over 30℃. Soaking in ice water quickly brings the fruit temperature down to around 9℃. This rapid cooling suppresses polyphenol oxidase activity and retains its bright red colour. The core equipment of this pre-cooling system is the CBFI direct-cool ice block machine, which uses an ice-water mixture as a refrigerant. It delivers fast cooling and large heat exchange capacity, cutting operational costs signifi
cantly.
In fact, every fruit and vegetable has its own characteristics:
CBFI designs customised solutions for different fruits and vegetables. Flake ice machines, tube ice machines, ice block machines, and low-temperature chillers can be flexibly combined according to produce properties, locking freshness for every fruit right at the source.
2. LCCP Food Processing Workshop: A Bespoke Beauty Salon for Produce
Next, I enter the CBFI LCCP food processing workshop. "LCCP" stands for an innovative concept pioneered by CBFI in the industry: Low temperature, Clean, Comfortable, Plant (food processing workshop), representing three layers of protection.
Here I go through strict procedures in sequence: pesticide residue testing, bubble washing, intelligent sorting & grading, metal detection, and manual inspection. Every process protects fruit appearance, operates efficiently, preserves natural bloom, and retains original flavour.
🔺 CBFI-LCCP Fruit & Vegetable Processing Workshop
3. IQF Freezing to Lock Freshness: The "Time-freezing" Magic
Want to preserve the sweetness and nutrition of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables long-term? Quick freezing is the key anti-ageing magic.
Traditional freezing used to be a nightmare for produce:
Slow freezing: ice crystals grow larger than fruit cells, piercing cell walls like tiny needles. After thawing, juice leaks heavily and texture turns mushy.
Inconsistent quality: fruits in the same batch are either over-frozen or only partially frozen, resulting in uneven taste.
Temperature control relied purely on veteran workers' experience, with unpredictable outcomes.
Time-consuming cleaning with hygiene dead corners; high installation and investment costs, which are troublesome for small and medium produce processors.
The CBFI fluidized bed freezer treats me perfectly. High-pressure cold airflow gently lifts me up, so I cool evenly while suspended. In a short time, my core temperature drops to -18℃, with each berry separate and non-clumping. Ice crystals are controlled within 50μm, keeping cell walls intact and reducing juice loss by 30% to 50%. After thawing, I stay plump, crisp, and tangy-sweet, with my natural bloom still intact.
🔺 CBFI Fluidized Bed Freezer Exterior
When it comes to quick freezing, different produce characteristics call for customised freezing methods:
Strawberries & blueberries: thin-skinned berries prone to sticking and squeezing after freezing. Fluidized bed freezing is commonly used. Berries suspend and tumble in strong cold wind, "dancing" without touching each other, ensuring individual integrity and complete shape.
Cherries: firm flesh with high moisture, requiring highly uniform freezing. Also ideal for fluidized bed freezers. High-speed cold air disperses each fruit fully, removing heat rapidly and avoiding insufficient or over-freezing to lock its crisp texture.
Pineapple chunks & taro balls: fixed shapes and large batch volumes. Fluidized bed freezing is the top choice, enabling continuous mass production while maintaining neat shapes with no breakage or adhesion.
Broccoli & Bok choy: tender leafy vegetables require fast and even freezing. Otherwise, leaf edges easily suffer frost damage and darkening. Fluidized bed freezers also work well here, cooling every leaf evenly and freezing thoroughly in a short time to reduce weight loss and colour deterioration.
CBFI offers a full range of freezing equipment including fluidized bed freezers, spiral freezers, and tunnel freezers. Whether for berries, stone fruits, cut produce, or prepared food products, we provide the most professional and suitable freezing solution.
Besides, high-value crops such as mushrooms and fresh bamboo shoots have a short shelf life, and freezing quality directly determines their selling price. The CBFI integrated freezer only occupies 24㎡ of floor space. It is fully assembled at the factory, ready to run once connected to power, and can be put into production within 3 to 5 days to precisely lock freshness. Flexible rental options are also available. Seasonal processors and start-ups don't need heavy capital investment for peak seasons, achieving high-quality frozen products with a small footprint, high output, and low investment.
🔺 CBFI-Integrated Freezer
4. Intelligent Warehousing: A 5-Star Hibernation Chamber for Produce
Then I move into a dedicated fresh-keeping base-CBFI temperature-controlled cold storage, entering hibernation mode. This cold storage is truly a five-star hibernation chamber. Its large storage capacity holds tons of fruits and vegetables. An intelligent precision temperature control system provides zoned protection for different varieties: fresh fruits stored at constant 0–4℃ refrigeration, frozen fruits kept at -18℃ frozen storage. Every category of produce has its exclusive temperature zone.
🔺 CBFI-Fruit & Vegetable Cold Storage
The warehouse maintains an evenly distributed and highly stable temperature field with minimal fluctuation, preventing major issues like dehydration, oxidative discoloration, and flavour degradation. Even after long-term storage, I retain great appearance, crisp texture, nutrition, and flavour, staying in perfect condition.
🔺 CBFI-Fruit Controlled Atmosphere Cold Storage
This professional low-temperature fresh-keeping system not only preserves the original quality of fruits and vegetables, but also helps enterprises upgrade from rough processing to high-end refined, export-grade production. Processors gain more stable product quality and higher market premiums, easily meeting international standards and expanding their footprint in the global premium fruit and vegetable market.
5. Full Cold Chain Delivery: Heading to Thousands of Households
After enough rest, it's time to set off! CBFI's full cold chain delivery network is ready: 0–4℃ refrigerated trucks for fresh cargo, -18℃ freezer trucks for long-distance frozen goods transport. The whole-process temperature control is traceable; every stage of the produce journey and every temperature change is clearly recorded. With CBFI's end-to-end cold chain system escorting us, my fellow fruits and I travel far and safely arrive at supermarkets and catering outlets.
From source pre-cooling and temperature-controlled processing to product quick-freezing and cold storage, CBFI builds an interconnected freshness guarantee system for fruit and vegetable products. Supported by robust refrigeration equipment, innovative freezing technologies, and multi-scenario solutions, it effectively cuts agricultural product circulation losses, helps processors upgrade product quality, and confidently captures the global high-end market.
CBFI, making natural fruit and vegetable freshness travel across mountains and seas to reach every family.
Coming Soon
「Freshness」Preservation Journey Episode 5: A Sausage's Quality Journey
