Vacuum cooling as the name suggests is a cooling technique which is a form of rapid cooling used specially for any porous product with excess water. This technique uses the evaporative cooling principle. Vacuum cooling system is most often used for cooling food products which have a very high amount of water content along with large porosities. Due to this being the most economical and efficient method, this is widely used all over. This technique of rapid cooling of food products has been proven to be one of the best methods of both cooling and storing of fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc.
This rapid cooling process not just improves the quality of the product, but also enhances the shelf life of the product many folds. This technology also helps in reduction of the cooling costs in comparison to the conventional regular cooling methods.
In the vacuum cooling system, the product gets cooled uniformly. The process cools the entire body without any temperature gradient thereby increasing the shelf life of the product.
In this process, cooling of the product takes hardly a quarter of the energy as opposed to the other traditional cooling methods.
The disadvantage of vacuum cooling system is that sometimes there is excess moisture loss in this cooling process, which deteriorates the quality of the product. A limit is there to the cooling process as well. It is therefore very important to maintain the right temperature, pressure, as well as the cooling time.