French fries, which actually originated as a Belgian specialty, are today famous around the world as a side dish or snack – but with a somewhat tarnished reputation for allegedly high fat content. These crispy delights, though, are better than their reputation. If properly prepared, their fat content is around 13 %. If consumers bake pre-deep fried and deep-frozen French fries in their own ovens, according to package instructions, they can enjoy a product with around 5 % fat. The type of fat being used, however, is crucial for effects on human health. By now, most manufacturers now use healthy vegetable oils such as sunflower-seed oil, rather than the earlier controversial hardened fats.

Tunnel freezers for French fries typically turn out 10 to 30 tons of fries per hour. This amounts to average output of six million servings per day per production line. With such orders of magnitude, energy-saving measures are naturally especially interesting – particularly since energy costs for freezing account for a major share of the overall costs for this popular deep-frozen product. This is where GEA Refrigeration Technologies goes into action: GEA cooling and freezing systems, including predictive control systems, are perfectly matched to a variety of production processes – and they keep energy consumption at a minimum.