The task has been done well
By: Héctor Gómez Pérez
By: Héctor Gómez Pérez
by Héctor Gómez Pérez
If there is a group of equipment whose use in the industry is widespread, it is that of Reach-in refrigerators; they are part of the landscape in chain stores and in other places where the slogan of the conservation and refrigeration of food, fruits and beverages is the order of the day.
Currently, these equipment must respond to the needs and quality demands of the final consumer, in which the issue of energy savings occupies a preponderant place, hence these equipment adhere to various standards aimed at guaranteeing efficiency with the lowest energy cost.
To talk about this and other issues related to this equipment, AC/R LATINOAMÉRICA invited Jorge Calouche, Mipal's export manager. With it, various topics were delved into that currently become centers of interest, among which the issue of the current economic swing and its impact on the industry could definitely not be left aside.
What's new in the teams
The first thing that was discussed with Calouche was the new technologies that are being incorporated into reach refrigerators; at this point he specified that the constant concerns in the development of this equipment are determined by the mastery over the finned profile, the perfect distribution of air and the balanced relationship between internal volume and the heat exchanger. He also added about the developments compatible with new refrigerants that "the use of gases and ecological insulation generate the need for technological improvement and more detailed studies to offer greater performance and present differences in the product".
With regard to the commercialization of the equipment, the guest believes that because they are essential elements in different economic sectors, he could not determine some countries or markets that differ more than others in the acquisition of them. This became the gateway to address an issue that captures the eyes, not only of the refrigeration industry, but of the world in general: the current global economic crisis and the impact on our region, local markets and the sale of equipment, especially those that occupy this note.
"The impact in North America, Europe and Asia is more pronounced than in Latin America, but even so, the situation is being reflected. The different containment measures that are being taken by companies in several countries seek to adjust to that reality. Without a clear vision of an already stabilized scenario, refrigerator sales will follow the dimensions of the crisis in each territory," Calouche said.
In that sense, he said that in the current scenario, the food industry has so far been one of the least affected by the negative impact of the crisis, which is good for the commercialization of refrigeration equipment. "I believe that after the accommodation of the current situation, the market will resume its pace, according to the growth prospects of each country," said this professional.
Friends of the environment
The environmental issue is recurrent in different political, social and economic spheres. The refrigeration industry has taken its part in these discussions and has directed efforts to lessen the negative impact on the environment. Is the commitment serious?
In this regard, Calouche pointed out that the technological evolution is oriented precisely to make the current equipment better than its predecessors, reducing the impact on the environment and offering an optimal performance. In turn, he said that the industry has been very committed to the issue of replacing equipment that works with highly polluting refrigerants. "Manufacturers have come a long way in relation to this substitution, regardless of schedules and protocols. The refrigeration industry was the fastest to adjust to the new patterns."
As noted from the beginning, Reach-in refrigerators are basically used in the food and service industry, such as bars and restaurants. Calouche adds that this equipment is responsible for 20% of the consumption of all energy used in commercial refrigeration and that glass door refrigerators, frequently used in beverage counters, correspond to approximately 11% of energy use in commercial refrigeration. "Reach-in refrigerators with state-of-the-art glass doors are a solution to significantly reduce energy consumption," added Calouche and said that Mipal has prepared novelties for this line.
Finally, Jorge Calouche was asked about whether the refrigeration industry is doing its bit in the conservation of the environment and particularly Mipal and this was what he answered: "Much more than a grain of sand. The industry has been the fastest to respond to alerts from the Montreal and Kyoto Prtotocolos. In the case of Mipal, for example, several actions of social and environmental responsibility are part of the day to day of the company, in addition to participation in study groups and dissemination of sustainable practices in refrigeration and industry. Another important point to highlight is the dissemination of food preservation practices, reducing discard and waste, helping in the selection of the right equipment. Mipal has been prepared for more than a decade to offer the market ecologically correct products."
By James M. Calm*
Recount: In the first part of this article, a review of the evolution of refrigerants from their oldest use to the present day was carried out, dividing the history into four generations. While in this installment we will try to address future guidelines and candidates.
Next generation of refrigerants
Refrigerant manufacturers responded quickly to the F-Gas directive, with announcements of new refrigerants. At least three multinational manufacturers reported their own development of innovative refrigerants to meet the GWP limit of 150 (DuPont, 2006; Honeywell, 2006; and INEOS Fluor, 2006). Considering the large market value of automotive refrigerant sales, it's safe to assume that most companies are looking for solutions, especially now that some of the largest companies are registered waiting to comply with F-gas standards.
These entities have published preliminary data on environment, safety and performance, but are restricting the full disclosure of refrigerant compositions for competitive reasons, as the final formulations are still being refined and because definitive data do not yet exist. Some of the major patents present an idea about the substances considered, either individually or as combined components (e.g., Singh et al., 2005, and Mnor et al., 2006). Table 1 expands on this information.
Patents suggest that some candidates and uses may require compatibilizers (such as anti-foam additives or metal surface deactivators), stabilizers (such as oxidation inhibitors), lubricant solubilizers, or other additives.
Some, if not all, of the manufacturers anticipate that the solutions or variants of the solutions identified to meet the requirements of Gas F will have greater application potential. DuPont (2006), Minor et al. (2006), and Singh et al. (2005) specifically identify increased application opportunities for both refrigerants in static refrigeration and air conditioning systems and for fire extinguishing applications and foam blowing agents. The perceived ease (with no apparent commitment to safety, durability or efficiency) concealed huge investments to develop the third-generation refrigerants and associated lubricants, to optimize and build manufacturing plants, to modify and qualify equipment and component designs (especially compressors), and to train installation, operation and maintenance technicians. The quick and highly optimistic responses to the GWP limit of Gas F for automotive refrigerants (the start of the next generation), represent a signal to regulators that there are refrigerant options that meet more sustainable environmental goals, rather than getting involved in the current Montreal and Kyoto Protocols.
However, four very important points must be taken into account. First, manufacturers had previously examined and even conducted limited testing of major replacement refrigerants. Records specifically document the testing of non-ODS refrigerants to replace CFCs, for example the continued use of R-134a in household refrigerators, more than ten years before the Montreal Protocol (Dupont, 1988). Except as combined components (such as R-152a in R-500 and R-23 in R-503), the industry avoided HFC refrigerants, based on lubricant considerations prior to the phase-out of ODS, although they were recognized as candidates in early 1928.
Second, replacement refrigerants are generally less efficient than previous options. With few exceptions, the efficiency gains that are achieved in machinery using alternative refrigerants are primarily derived from improvements in equipment design rather than the properties of newer working fluids. Simply put, better optimization with older refrigerants would have produced even greater efficiency in most cases and alternative refrigerants reduce margins for further improvements in product efficiency.
Third, none of the current candidate refrigerants is ideal and the future discovery of ideal refrigerants is extremely unlikely (Calm and Didion, 1997). The intense restrictions force to acquire new commitments between the different environmental, safety, performance, cost, and other objectives; they do not expand on the finite options available. And fourth, sequential attention to individual environmental problems risks the elimination of important (or even critical) options for balanced general solutions, based on the least (or even negligible) impact on individual problems (Wuebbles and Calm, 1997).
Balance between different environmental goals
With the new refrigerants, interesting questions arise about the balance between contradictory environmental objectives and between environmental goals and safety or compatibility. Phasing out the SDGs reduces the options for dealing with climate change from direct consequences or from indirect consequences such as energy-related emissions. Two examples are the conflicting goals for R-13I1 (CF3I, a fluoro-carbon dioxide, FIC) as a potential component in low-GWP automotive refrigerants (Singh et al., 2005) and R-123 (an HCFC) as a chiller refrigerant (Calm, 2006). These two refrigerants offer a short duration in the atmosphere, low GWP level, low acute inhalation toxicity and is non-flammable. Both are effective fire suppressants. However, both have low (but not zero) ODP, between 0.011 and 0.018 (modeled), depending on latitude or release altitude for R-13I1 and 0.02 semi-empirical (0.012 modeled) for R-123*. R-13I1 offers potential as a mixed component in combination with fluorinated olefins (unsaturated alkenes) to suppress flammability, minimizing both ODP and GWP. Despite being an SDG, although with a very low level of ODP, R-13I1 is not controlled by the Montreal Protocol as it was not in commercial use in 1992, which was the last time the substances were added to the Protocol.
R-123 is the most efficient refrigerant for water chillers, unlike R-11 and R-141b (UNEP, 2007a), both of which have significantly higher levels of ODP and higher levels of GWP. Still, R-123 was still in phase-out in Europe as an SDG and its phase-out is scheduled, except for a few reconsiderations, in new chillers towards 2020 in non-Article 5 countries and towards 2040 in Article 5 countries. R-123 has a very low overall impact on the environment due to its low ODP level, very low GWP level, very short duration in the atmosphere, very low emissions in current designs and efficiency (UNEP, 2007a).
The Montreal Protocol allows for limited production for service needs until 2030 in non-Article 5 countries. It imposes no limit anywhere for the continued use and service of existing equipment or refrigerants stored or recovered. These examples illustrate the clear contradictions in environmental objectives for dealing with ozone depletion and climate change. At least one recent assessment suggests a reconsideration of previous proposals in relation to the phase-out of all SDGs. This indicates that "the production and consumption of specific chemicals, which were found not to be harmful to the ozone layer, could be allowed after the assessment, making some adjustments to the Protocol" (UNEP, 2007b).
Comparing Figure 2 and Figure 3, as well as the options to be taken into account and the consequences of atmospheric ozone depletion and climate change, suggests greater difficulty and urgency for the mitigation of global warming. These comparisons challenge the routine elimination of the few options that have a negligible (or even imperceptible) influence on atmospheric ozone, but also the significant (or even strong) potential to mitigate global climate change. Both environmental problems are important, but the absence of ideal candidates who solve both problems together, without degrading safety, requires a balance between the objectives.
Although speculative, the creators of the Montreal Protocol would probably have taken more care in the wide elimination of chemicals according to their class, than through individual determination, if they had had the awareness they currently have about the severity of global warming and the recognition of the response limitations of the moment. However, the Protocol ensured future adjustments based on scientific assessments, which offers an option (albeit politically difficult) for reviews to deal with the few, but significant, cases of this type.
Other problems arise in environmental compensations. The main replacement selected by manufacturers for R-22, which is currently the most widely used refrigerant, is R-410A (a combination of R-32 and R-125 HFCs). Although this substitute offers virtually zero ODP, it increases GWP by 16% (from 1810 to 2100 for 100-year integration) and decreases the achievable efficiency for conventional air conditioners with simple cycles by 6% (Calm and Domanski, 2004). Product refinements make it possible to adjust (or even improve) the efficiencies of standard sorting conditions, especially with the exploitation of the upper thermal transfer of the mixture, but the opportunity for future performance improvement is less.
In addition, the efficiency of R-410A degrades more rapidly than that of R-22 at higher ambient temperatures approaching the critical temperature of R-125, so maximum energy demand is higher with R-410A for air cooling systems for the same classified seasonal efficiencies. That disadvantage is especially significant when we consider expensive electricity generation, although it is more sustainable. Similarly, R-32 and some other R-32 mixtures (although marginally flammable) avoid this concern and offer higher efficiencies and lower GWP levels (Calm and Domanski, 2004).
Fluoro-olefins, like those considered to be low-GWP automotive refrigerants, are generally more reactive than composites, with only single carbon-carbon bonds. This reactivity implies a shorter duration in the atmosphere, lower levels of ODP (for those containing chlorine, bromine or iodine) and lower gwp level, but also implies lower stability and greater toxicity. Similarly, chemicals with the lowest GWP levels tend to decompose near the surface, predominantly in proximity to the release site. Some may be creators of smog and others may decompose or contribute directly or catalytically to the formation of other chemicals with a higher level of GWPs than the original chemical, thus presenting higher indirect levels of GWP than direct, and the influences of temperature, latitude, altitude and even the presence of other air pollutants, complicate the determination of net GWP levels for them.
The resolution of these complications is beyond the scope of this document. The topic is presented only to illustrate the complex interactions and inevitable trade-offs (commitments) between environmental goals, even beyond consideration of ozone depletion and global warming or between the impacts of emissions related to refrigerants ("direct effect") and those related to energy (sometimes identified as "indirect effect", which is not the same as indirect GWP).
Conclusions
Based on scientific findings, regulatory requirements and market pressures, a fourth generation of refrigerants seems imminent by 2010. The regulatory selection criteria for the new generation will add low GWP levels (initially 150 or less and determined for a 100-year integration) to the old requirements for suitability, safety and material compatibility. With recognition of the potential for additional environmental concerns and implicit for fluorochemicals to meet the new GWP limits, short duration in the atmosphere should also be one of the criteria. More importantly, the new generation must offer high efficiency or the shift to treat low GWP levels will have the reverse effect and produce higher net GHG emissions rather than decrease them.
Although current regulatory pressures are focused on mobile air conditioners, future expansion to other applications is almost certain. Many refrigerants currently considered as new alternatives, including many HFCs, could become old waste. Given the scarcity of viable options, future refrigerant selections ensure a collective consideration of all environmental issues together, with integrated assessments rather than incremental treatments that jeopardize the elimination of good overall options to achieve fewer (or even imperceptible) impacts to individual problems.
*Engineering Consultant
Email: [email protected]
By Héctor Gómez Pérez
Between 1 and 12 December 2008, the XIV UN Climate Change Conference was held in the Polish city of Poznan, with 182 countries taking part. This meeting was the prelude to next year's conference to be held in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, in which an agreement will be signed that will replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012, and that represents the commitment of global actors in the face of polluting gases and climate change.
This shows the importance that the issue of environmental care has acquired and the commitment that various industries have assumed to reduce the negative impact on the environment. The CVAC/R industry has not been the exception and has been promoting the use of certain equipment and refrigerants for this purpose. Precisely this article aimed to explore the advances and the state of the market in terms of compressors for refrigeration equipment and was supported by Eduardo Seufferheld Zimmer, global sales manager of Carlyle OEM; Roberto Sánchez Valladares, general director of Bitzer México S. de R.L. de C.V. and Fernando Pujalt, wholesale marketing manager for Latin America of Emerson Climate Technologies.
Compressors on the agenda
For Fernando Pujalt, the characteristics that compressors must currently have are that they must use refrigerants that reduce possible damage to the environment, be leak-proof, efficient, reliable and silent. For Eduardo Seufferheld they must have a perfect combination of reliability and efficiency in energy consumption, all because "it is a very important issue for many users, especially when large quantities of food with a high monetary value are stored and an important refrigeration process has to be maintained".
Roberto Sánchez, for his part, explained in the following way the specifications that each of these equipment must have:
Although manufacturers are very aware of the care of the environment, many customers have already been interested in the subject and the frequently asked questions when making the purchase decision include questions such as "is it energy efficient speaking?" or "does it preserve the environment?". However, as long as the legislation on the subject is not clear, there will be no uniform way of thinking and purchase decisions will include other types of variables such as price. In the case of Mexico, European companies that have operations in that country are sticking to the criteria of the central offices, when they know that by law they can continue to use others.
To the above, Roberto Sánchez added that "Mexican companies continue to look for a better initial purchase price without a medium-term vision. I must point out that there are honorable exceptions for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in very specific areas that deserve our admiration and respect for their ethics on the subject; but as long as the government does not legislate and offer support to achieve change, I see it very difficult for companies to change."
Research and innovations
Carlyle's research for the development of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly innovations is currently being conducted in conjunction with Carrier's Global Research and Development Centers in the United States, Europe, China and one will soon open in India. Carlyle as a subsidiary of Carrier Corporation United Technologies uses these centers for research on the use of natural refrigerants such as CO2 and related technologies.
This company manufactures from small compressors for transport units to open 12-cylinder compressors for the refrigeration and industrial air conditioning industry. In addition to the open and semi-hermetic screw compressors of 15 HP type 05T/06T to the Paragon of more than 240 HP, apart from the semi-hermetic models 06D, 06E and those with two lids 06CC.
Its most recent innovations are in European refrigeration facilities and plants where Carlyle compressors have been implemented with the use of CO2 refrigerant with CO2OLtec™ systems.
As far as Emerson is concerned, the company continues to work on the development of technology for Copeland Scroll™ compressors. The goal is to obtain sustainable products and solutions that allow achieving the highest levels of efficiency and reliability with the lowest noise.
Among its innovations is the Copeland Scroll line that R-410A uses as a refrigerant. In addition, compressors for refrigeration with steam injection that allow to obtain 40% more capacity and 30% more efficiency in low temperature applications. At the same time, it launched the Copeland Scroll Digital compressor, which can modulate its capacity from 10% to 100%, which allows a much tighter control of the temperature.
Bitzer had several new features in 2008. In maritime refrigeration, it signed a contract with Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, to implement a double-stage compressor with integrated variable frequency drive; all this in an extra light aluminum body. Its energy efficiency and versatility has allowed it to exceed sales of 20,000 units per year.
In Chillventa 2008 this company launched the Octagon line in which the compressor, the drive and the software are included in a single package. Likewise, the F line was developed where new lubrication and metallurgy technologies are incorporated, allowing the compressors to be rotated at high revolutions; in this way it is achieved with more compact equipment greater capacities.
The balance of the year
2006 and 2007 were good years for compressor manufacturers. 2008 had its ups and downs due to the financial crisis and 2009 looks like a tough year, especially in the first half of the year.
"Indeed, the years 2006 and 2007 were good for the commercialization of compressors; likewise, 2008 was a good year for Carlyle. We expect to see an increase in sales in 2009 as well," said Eduardo Seufferheld Zimmer of Carlyle.
According to Roberto Sánchez of Bitzer, 2008 was a good year until the time of the US real estate crisis and added that "2009 is going to present a very tough challenge for the industry, especially for those who do not have a clear strategy for the replacement market. We expect to see a difficult first half of the year and we are confident that the second half can even exceed the expectations we have today in general. In the case of Bitzer in particular, we are very well positioned globally to find the opportunities and execute them in very aggressive times."
To consume a fresh ice cream with an exquisite flavor, several parameters must be closely followed in the refrigeration process. A breakdown of the cold chain causes the product to lose quality and is unfit for consumption.
by Ana María Restrepo
Ice cream is one of the milk products that adults and children enjoy the most. Its beginnings date back to time immemorial, where only kings and nobles could enjoy it.
It is said that the Romans were the first to prepare sorbets based on snow, fruits and honey, however, some claim that the Chinese already mixed these products long before the birth of Christ.
It is also said that in the time of Alexander the Great, amphorae containing fruits mixed with honey were buried in the snow to better preserve them and serve them frozen. In Arabia, the chefs refined the quality and variety of these products, but it is Marco Polo who is credited with disseminating the recipe to prepare ice cream in Italy after his return from one of his trips to the Far East.
When Catherine de Medici married Henry II, ice cream arrived in France from the hand of her cook, and in this country eggs were added to the recipe. Later the ice creams were taken to England and so, little by little they were spreading in Europe to end up in America at the time of colonization.
But some questions arise... How did they keep the temperature? According to history, in the sixteenth century it was discovered that ethyl nitrate when mixed with snow produced very low temperatures; this discovery would have its importance in the manufacture of ice cream. In 1600, the Italian Procopius created a machine that homogenized fruits, sugar and ice, resulting in a real ice cream. Then in 1846, in the United States, Nancy Jhonson, invented the first automatic ice cream maker, which laid the basis for the emergence of industrial ice cream. A few years later, in 1851, Jacobo Fussel founded the first ice cream company in the United States.
Today, advances in the refrigeration industry have made it possible to optimize resources to achieve artisanal and industrial ice cream manufacturing with all the essential characteristics of this delicious milk-based product. Ice cream is one of the most desired foods today, for some it is a treat and should only be included in the diet occasionally and as a dessert; for others it is a highly nutritious food and one of the triumphs of food technology.
Ice, sweet and air
Ice cream is composed of simple raw materials: milk, cream, butter (butter), purified water, fruit juice and sugars, among others that are added depending on whether the manufacture is industrial or artisanal. These raw materials must be in a refrigeration room, with a temperature of between 0 and 2 ºC, where they are kept so that they are in the best conditions to make the mixture. Mauricio Baena, general manager of Thermal Engineering, explains that these rooms have low air rotation with undemanding design conditions. When making this mixture, some manufacturers say that it must be done in a pasteurizing machine that has a heat treatment for the destruction of bacteria, at already established time and temperature conditions. An elevated temperature of between 80-85ºC is applied to this, which is quickly reduced to -4 or -6ºC, so that the pathogenic bacteria are destroyed.
Then, this mixture is homogenized, making the molecules that make up the ice cream as small as possible and that the mixture has a better body, a softer texture, smoother tissue, in addition to improving melting and storage properties. At maturation the mixture is placed at a temperature of between 4/6ºC, in this phase all the raw materials will take the characteristics of the ice cream, smell, taste, color, etc.
Mixing of raw materials
After these phases and so that the ice cream has the necessary consistency to be consumed, it is important to carry out a freezing process that is carried out in a machine called a freezer.
According to Baena, in the freezer the mixture is cooled to a desired consistency and stirred by introducing a certain amount of air under finely determined conditions. "The goal is to drive the freezing and subsequent hardening of the ice cream to get as smooth a texture as possible." When the mixture comes out of the freezer it should be between -7 -8 degrees Celsius.
At this stage, air is incorporated into the raw material to obtain a consistent, fluffy ice cream with suitable textures. Mauricio explains that this process is known as overrun and influences the formation and structure of the ice cream, making it heavier or lighter depending on the type of product, taste and country.
"To determine the refrigeration load of product in the freezing of ice cream it is necessary to know the composition of the mixture in terms of percentage of fat, sugar, stabilizers, water, etc., as well as the percentage of Overrun. Without the air, ice cream would be just milk snow," says Baena.
Consistent and hard ice cream
After the freezing process is carried out, the ice cream must be put in freezing tunnels where it is hardened. This is the most important part of the cold chain and it is here where the quality of the ice cream is determined and where the product becomes part of a freezing cold chain.
According to Mauricio Baena, this is the most demanding step in the process and as such must have high design requirements. "The construction of hardening tunnels should involve air rotations above 300 times per hour and additional should be considered a product location that allows to have the best speed coefficient around it. It is very important when determining the hardening times what is the presentation of the product, if it is in gallon of ice cream you can not have a hardening time less than six hours in a conventional tunnel, if it is presentation called impulse this would be perfectly possible. "
At the end of the hardening, when the ice cream is ready to be consumed, it is stored in cold rooms with demanding temperatures and high design parameters.
In many cases, hardening is confused with storage in the same room, something that should not be done since each process must maintain different temperatures. The storage chain requires temperatures to be well below the melting point of ice cream, which starts at approximately -18º C.
After these stages of production, the ice cream is transferred through refrigerated transport to the points of sale or distribution points. In the former, the product must be refrigerated in freezers or display refrigerators with optimal temperatures to preserve the cold chain. At the distribution points, the ice cream is stored and transported back to the points of sale in smaller vehicles but which retain the necessary parameters of -20ºC cooling.
Mauritius states that it is vitally important that the cold chain is not suspended and that the disposition and quantity of the product inside the freezer of the point of sale is ensured with a temperature range. Also in transport, it must be ensured that the lower limits of the temperature are never exceeded, which are handled with international standards.
The deliciousness of the cold
There is nothing more pleasant on a hot day than enjoying an ice cream, hard, soft, creamy, water ... but let it be an ice cream.
However, this ice cream that is enjoyed in the warmest moments depends on a number of factors to make it the best such as the quality of the raw materials, the circulation of the air and the maintenance of the cold chain. "The reality is that a bad hardening produces poor quality of the product, identified by the formation of crystals in the product by difference of stratification in the product, so the characteristic of hardening the ice cream is fundamental for there to be a good finished product" explains Baena.
The temperatures that are handled in the ice cream industry are global standards that are in different ranges depending on the process. For the conservation of raw materials, a cold level of between 0 and 2 degrees Celsius must be preserved depending on what is stored. When talking about air rotations and evaporation temperature, it must be -38 to -40ºC in order to have air temperatures of minus 34 and thus be able to obtain the necessary cold stroke, and in the conservation of ice cream, the temperature of the hottest storage room must be -23ºC.
It should be noted that the commercial chain of ice cream begins when the products pass the feezer. It can be said that after freezing and hardening, ice cream could be sold immediately, but its storage is necessary to provide better quality. In this industry refrigeration is achieved by means of ammonia and alternative refrigerants, freons, among them the most used are R507 or R404.
According to mauricio Baena's perception, refrigeration for ice cream plants in Latin America is as advanced as that of the United States or Europe, and it is in Argentina where more progress has been made in this.
World of flavors and colors
The water ice creams, typical flavors of fruits such as lemon, orange, mandarin, blackberry to those of brownie, pistachio, vanilla old style, red fruits and other more innovative as the mate, spicy wings, Cabernet and Torrontés wines, etc., make up a universe of flavor and color that offers diners the most delicious and sweet dessert, or also the most nutritious treat.
In the market there are three types of ice cream, the industrial ones whose manufacturing process requires products and materials in large quantities with less freshness, so flavorings and dyes are used to enhance the qualities of the ice cream, also the ice cream has more air.
Margarita Arango, regional manager of Calco (Compañía de alimentos colombianos S.A) Crepes and Wafles, Medellín, affirms that ice cream of industrial manufacture represents a much greater production, carried out in wide spaces and are generally produced that are marketed in the market.
The second type of ice cream, the artisanal one, is made in smaller locations and with the minimum proportion of chemicals, they do not use flavorings or preservatives, but with the maximum of natural products. "These ice creams are made with freshly milked milk, eggs and fresh fruits, with their own raw materials," explains Arango. Artisanal ice creams, which are part of artisan ice cream parlors or top-notch restaurants, have much less built-in air and a much creamier look.
On the other hand, the "soft" type ice cream is the one we call soft and is obtained just before consumption, in the same seller establishment. The base mixture is placed in a small butter machine and by pressing a tap the ice cream is extracted at the moment.
Margarita explains that artisanal production provides customers with finer ice cream with better quality, not to say that industrial ones are not manufactured under high quality standards, but that the raw materials of the former are more natural. However, he agrees with Mauricio when explaining that if the cold chain fails, the ice cream undergoes crystallization and leads to a lower quality, and although the taste is good, the structure is not adequate to be marketed.
It is mistakenly considered that ice cream is a treat that interferes with the daily diet of humans, however there are sugar-free ice creams that can be consumed by people with sugar problems, so that today dietitians and health specialists are considering it within the most nutritious dairy products.
The production of ice cream is in a period of expansion due to the high consumption that occurs in the world. Mexico is the largest consumer of ice cream from Latin America with an estimated exports reaching $24 million, followed by Canada with a range of $5.7 million, the United Kingdom with $3.6 million, Hong Kong with $2.8 million and The Bahamas with $2 million, according to data from the USDA/International Ice Cream Association.
Likewise, the most consuming countries of this product are, as of 2006, and according to the International Dairy Association, New Zealand, with 26.3 liters per year per inhabitant, followed by the United States. USA, with 24.5 liters. In Latin America, two liters per capita per year are consumed on average, in Colombia 1 to 1.3 liters and in Argentina it is three times more than in Colombia.