Few meals can beat a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Roast turkey, roast potatoes, carrots, peas, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and/or bread sauce… followed by Christmas pudding with brandy butter or cream (or maybe plum pudding, mince pies or trifle) – a mouth-watering prospect indeed.

Christmas dinner is a meal that people across the country increasingly look forward to as the festive season draws near, and is also one that is big business: more than 20 million turkeys are produced for meat in the UK each year, earning their producers £375 million. A staggering 10 million of these are sold in the weeks running up to Christmas according to the British Turkey Information Service.

Other festive delights

Other popular foods consumed during Yuletide include sausages, bacon, hams, cheeses, fruit, chocolates, cakes, biscuits and nuts. And despite tough economic times, people’s craving for ‘luxury foods’ (more expensive brands of cheese, ham and biscuits, etc. as special Christmas treats), means that consumers temporarily put any financial concerns to one side. In fact one national food retailer reported its best ever Christmas in 2010, serving over 24.5 million customers in the seven days up to and including Christmas Eve.

Although all of these Christmas foods are actually eaten throughout the year, production needs to significantly increase in the weeks preceding the Christmas and New Year holiday, to meet massive demand. Once produced, the foods then have to be properly stored before distribution in the UK (and often overseas).

Fixed refrigeration systems can sometimes fail

Farmers and other types of Christmas food producers will have refrigeration systems in place at their dedicated facilities, but these systems can sometimes fail. This is where hiring chiller units (large, powerful cooling machines) from a specialist chiller hire company can prove the ideal option: ensuring that all the aforementioned food types can remain fresh and saleable.

Preventing good food from going bad

Brussel spouts can be stored in a refrigerator raw for 3 to 4 weeks. Blanched and frozen, they will keep for up to six months, but if a healthy Brussel sprout crop is not stored at the correct temperature, it will spoil. The farmer’s profit can be badly affected, as can their reputation for being a reliable supplier, meaning orders next year may drop considerably. Many vegetable farmers across the country have worked doubly hard to recover from the financial losses incurred as a result of ruined crops in the spring (due to the unusually cold winter in 2011) and a spoiled Christmas harvest could be disastrous.

For most UK chocolate producers, the festive season is their busiest and most lucrative time. Chocolate cakes, bars, fudges and truffles, as well as chocolate coins, Santas and bunnies sell in their millions. That is why storing chocolate (once it is made) needs to be perfectly done. Milk, dark and white chocolate should be stored away from sunlight, with the ideal storage temperature being between 15 and 17°C (59 and 63°F) and strictly controlled humidity levels of less than 50 per cent are also best.

Producers must budget for potential disasters

Although many food producers enjoy a bumper harvest financially around Christmas, it is surprising how many of them do not budget each year for chiller hire, to protect themselves in the event of a refrigeration crisis. Part of this protection can involve contingency planning.

About contingencies

When supplying hired chiller units (and related equipment) to food producers at farms and other facilities, specialist rental companies will easily overcome any specific onsite difficulties or complications. Hire companies have logistics teams - experts in ensuring the required equipment reaches the site in the shortest time frame possible, whatever the weather and however remote the location. Technicians will also quickly assess whether the site has adequate power supply and make suitable provision for generators to be brought in if necessary.

All these challenges can be easily met by the chiller specialist performing a site survey at the facility - preferably before an emergency situation occurs. The food producer will also need to brief the hire company about critical periods of growing, production or storage, volume of space to be chilled and any accessibility difficulties (particular in adverse weather conditions).

With a carefully formulated contingency plan in place, the food producer can enjoy peace of mind, knowing that if their fixed refrigeration system fails in the run up to Christmas, a specialist chiller hire company will retain an appropriate volume of units to be able to rectify the situation within a matter of hours.