Heat Transfer During the Freezing of Liver in a Plate Freezer

The overall heat transfer coefficient was determined for a vertical plate freezer by the transient temperature method and used in a modification of Plank's equation by Cleland and Earle to predict the freezing time of blocks of pig liver. A comparison of predicted and previously published experimental freezing times showed an average absolute error of 6.5%. Overall heat transfer coefficients for the main types of fibreboard packaging were also determined together with their effect on predicted freezing time. This work has highlighted many of the advantages of plate freezing which has yet to gain wide acceptance in the U.K. meat industry.