The primary factors that drive the individual quick freezing (IQF) market are development and expansion of food retail chains by multinationals, consumer demand for perishable foods, growth in demand for availability of non-seasonal food products, and increase in demand for convenience food products.
The increase in the number of consumers for frozen food products across the globe has led to an increased interest among the manufacturers to provide frozen food items due to extended shelf-life and quality. The consumption of individual quick freezing products in the food & beverage industry has led to more streamlined processing stages pre-processing, freezing, and packaging of frozen food products. The major restraining factor for the market has environmental concerns regarding greenhouse gas emissions.
The global market is segmented on the basis of equipment type, processing stages, technology, product, and region. On the basis of equipment type, the spiral freezer segment dominated the global market, followed by tunnel freezer segment, in 2016. The temperature range and mechanical loads involved in the freezing operation are high; hence, the components of this system are required to be highly durable. Spiral freezers are used to rapidly cool and freeze products; these freezers assure product freezing quality with minimum product shrinkage.
Among the processing stages, the freezing segment accounted for the largest market share in 2016. Freezing helps in the retention of food quality and extends the storage life of foods whose water content is high. The freezing process taps the beneficial effects of low temperatures at which microorganisms cannot grow, reduces chemical reactions, and delays cellular metabolic reactions. Frozen food ensure non-seasonal year-round availability, minimize wastage, is less likely to deteriorate in transit or storage, is less perishable than fresh or chilled food, and is easier to use.
The global market, by technology, is segmented as mechanical IQF and cryogenic IQF. The mechanical IQF segment accounted for the larger market share in 2016. Mechanical IQF is most frequently used by food manufacturers for chilling, frosting, and freezing food products. Mechanical IQF involves a standard mechanical refrigeration cycle, which uses commonly used refrigerating agents such as carbon dioxide or ammonia. Mechanical IQF is now loaded with the latest design and intelligent system control to provide the best food safety, low maintenance, and energy efficiency.
The North American region is projected to hold the largest market share, followed by the European region, in 2022. The North American region is projected to be the fastest-growing individual quick freezing market in the forecast period. This is mainly due to the presence of a large number of manufacturers of IQF equipment in the region and increase in the consumption of frozen food products among the consumers.
Key players are as MAREL (Iceland), JBT (US), GEA (Germany), The Linde Group (Germany), Air Products and Chemicals (US), and Air Liquide (France).
No comments:
Post a Comment