The Customer

In the 25 years since COOK has been established, the family firm has transformed the ready-meals market with its superior quality frozen ready meals. Inspired by the taste of great home cooking, COOK services the rapidly increasing consumer demand for quality ready to cook food.

The Solution

Following a previous collaboration on a spiral freezer project in 2019, Starfrost custom-built an additional spiral freezing system for COOK. The spiral freezer operates uninterruptedly and freezes produce consistently, allowing production at COOK to be accurately controlled and monitored whilst delivering dependable quality results. The automated solution provided by both Starfrost spiral freezers has enabled COOK to increase total throughput by 80%.

Ben Walker, General Manager at COOK:

“Choosing the correct freezing process for food products is essential to maintain high manufacturing standards. The freezing process has an effect on processing time and consequently impacts profit margins. It is also key to deliver the consistent product quality we require at COOK.”

“The choice between spiral freezing and blast freezing – a process we had used before, was made following extensive research and product test trials; the conclusion was that the spiral freezer option would facilitate greater efficiencies in the freezing process and provide consistent freezing. It also removed the need for the trolleys that blast freezing requires, eliminating the risk of potential accidents caused by moving trolleys around the kitchen.”

“The Helix spiral freezer has enabled us to significantly expand production capacity, with both Starfrost systems now providing over 80% more output than the previous static freezing systems. The use of automated equipment means that our production line is continuously moving without bottleneck interruption and our product quality levels are guaranteed with consistent, non-stop freezing.”

“As always, we have enjoyed working with Starfrost, from point of sale through to commissioning and install, the transparent and personable service that the teams have provided is refreshing and of the highest standard. We look forward to working with Starfrost on our next project.”