About food display cabinets
When you work with fast-moving foods that also need to be stored at a certain temperature, a food display cabinet comes in handy.
To serve this purpose, you need a food display cabinet that not only presents the merchandise enticingly to the customers, but also ensures that the food is fit for consumption. Heated and refrigerated food display cabinets are ideal for both tasks.
Beers, soft drinks, and chilled products such ice-cream require refrigerated food display cabinets while heated food display cabinets are used for such products as hot chips, coffee or sandwiches.
There are a number of food display cabinets to choose from according to the product being show-cased. These include:
- multi-deck displays
- wine chillers
- serve-over counters
- buffet bars
- bottle coolers
- display freezers
Refrigerated cake display cabinets
For easily perishable foods such as cakes, you need to make sure that the food is kept fresh throughout its shelf-life.
A stale cake can easily destroy a baker's reputable name within a very short time. Consequently, good quality and functional refrigerated cake display cabinets is a must-have for any bakery worth its salt.
A quality display cabinet exhibits pastries attractively to boost sales while also ensuring the best storage conditions.
Types of refrigerated cake display cabinets
Refrigerated cake display cabinets can be broadly classified into two types:
- Display cabinets that use forced air
In these display cabinets a coil that is affixed at the top of the unit emits cold air. The air then flows downwards to the lower decks by gravity.
- Display cabinets that use a gravity coil
They use fans to circulate cold air within the unit. The advantage of using this particular design is that it is cheaper to buy and run. On the downside however, cakes stored in these cabinets are prone to drying out faster.
How to choose the right cake display cabinet
When choosing a refrigerated cake display cabinet, one needs to consider a number of factors. They are:
- The size and the number of cakes to display -- This will determine the size of the cabinet to buy and the number of decks it has. The shape of the cakes also comes into play here.
- The cost of the refrigeration unit -- Different sizes, brands, and types of display cabinets will have varying price tags. It is best to choose a unit a usable unit within your expenditure projections to avoid overrunning the budget and incurring unnecessary costs on a very expensive unit that when your needs may be served by a cheaper alternative.
- Lighting, including top lighting, fluorescent bulbs and shelf lighting -- Health and safety regulations require that any light bulbs placed in food display cabinets be properly encased to avoid contaminating the food in case the light blows or breaks. This requirement is however not mandatory for LED lighting.
- Ease of access while cleaning
It is also important to consider whether the additional features listed below, are available.
- Auto defrost
- Digital LED temperature display
- Adjustable shelves
- A rotating display
- Self-evaporating drainage
