CASE STUDY PIERINO FROZEN FOODS AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Freezing Technology Saves Time and Labor for Pasta Maker The family-owned Pierino Frozen Foods had relied on Messer freezers for the past 15 years, including its previous wave technology. Now the Wave Impingement Freezer is improving throughput and nitrogen efficiency.
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INCE PIERINO GUGLIELMETTI founded his premium pasta company more than 50 years ago, Lincoln Park, Mich.-based Pierino Frozen Foods has passed on not only to newer generations of Guglielmettis, but to newer generations of Messer freezers as well. With its first Messer Modular Tunnel Freezer installed in 1996 to handle the company’s frozen spaghetti, linguini, ravioli, and a wide range of other filled pasta varieties, Pierino is now using Messer’s newest individually quick frozen (IQF) freezer to achieve new levels of throughput and efficiencies. This isn’t Pierino’s first foray into wave freezers. Gianni Guglielmetti, president and COO of Pierino, s
PHOTOS COURTESY OF PIERINO FROZEN FOODS
Shown here are Pierino gnocchi entering (top) and exiting (bottom) a Messer Wave Impingement Freezer. The wave-like action helps keep the product separated while the impingement gas flows increase throughput, cryogen efficiency, and operating leverage for the premium pasta maker.
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took over leadership of the company from his father in 2014. By 2015, the company’s sales had increased by more than 25%, and the pasta maker had simply outgrown its existing freezing tunnel. As a result, Pierino adopted the latest Messer freezing technology at the time and became one of the first prepared foods processors to install the Messer Wave Freezer for IQF pasta. This adoption improved throughput by up to 30% and kept the gourmet pastas separated as they moved down the freezing line. Messer continued to develop its freezer technology as Pierino also continued to grow. Increasing production costs had Pierino looking for a way to improve freezing efficiency, reduce expenses, and thereby increase its profitability. Messer was working on a next-generation technology for IQF freezing that would help Pierino to achieve the increased freezing production that it was looking for—in the same footprint with more efficient cryogen and labor usage.
The new cryogenic technology After doing some baseline testing onsite, Messer modeled the new production increase and cost to freeze with the new Messer Wave Impingement Freezer. The Pierino team also took advantage of Messer’s Technical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, to get a firsthand look at the new freezer. “Seeing the equipment firsthand helped give us the confidence we were making the right decision,” says Gianni Guglielmetti. He was impressed with the freezer’s design that focused on long-term reliability, maintainability, and cleanability. | June 2022 | www.profoodworld.com
5/31/22 4:10 PM
