Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SUPERPRETZEL'S

This is topic SUPERPRETZEL'S in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 05-30-2001, 04:03 PM:

I'm assuming that any theatre selling these pretzels probably has this same problem. Problem being.....pretzels are basically fused together when frozen for shipping. How in the heck are you separating them once the pretzels are stuck together in rows of 25??? I'm tired of having them break when we try to individually package them. Any suggestions? Thawing them out doesn't seem to help at all. I got a very generic comment from J&J Vending claiming my freezer is too cold. Why don't they place wax paper between the pretzels prior to freezing them?

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-30-2001, 07:20 PM:

Typically, when frozen foods are packaged in the plant they are "IQF". (Individually Quick Frozen) This means that they are spread out on a sheet of some kind and frozen so that they are apart from all of the other items. Once they are sufficiently frozen they are packaged and put into cold storeage. When you take them out of the deep freeze they should seperate with little or not trouble at all.

The caveat is that they need to stay frozen at ZERO DEG. F. from the moment they leave the processing plant to the time you take them out of the freezer. If you don't they will partially thaw. When you put them into the deep freeze in your theatre's storage area you are RE-FREEZING them and this is where they start to stick together. Once they have thawed they are essentially spoiled unless you cook them right away. Unfortunately, wax paper squares between the layers probably won't help. What you'll end up with is a pile of pretzels that have little bits of wax paper embedded into them.

Let me guess... this has only been happening since the weather started to get warm, right? I'm willing to bet that they are delivered in a plain old ordinary semi truck, right? The truck isn't refrigerated and the food is thawing out in transit. When you get them they are partially thawed and when you put them into the freezer you inadvertantly turn them into a giant ice ball.

Solution: Check all your deliveries the moment they arrive and BEFORE the truck driver leaves. Any food that is supposed to be frozen that isn't (or any food that's supposed to be warm but is frozen ) should be REFUSED as damaged in transit and sent back to the company.