In the US, some estimates indicate a carbon dioxide (CO2) demand of about 9.2 million short tons for the merchant market, where the largest sector of demand is food processing, estimated to be in the mid-40% range in many areas of the country. This sector has always shown to be resilient, particularly in the processing of meat products of all types.
For example, when large plants owned and operated by majors such as Tyson Foods – an American leader in processing meat and poultry – decided to convert specific plants from CO2 in cryogenic freezing to mechanical or liquid nitrogen (LIN) alternatives some years ago, these operations actually later reverted to using CO2 again in the same plants, and often for multiple applications.
CO2 snow, cryogenic freezing, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and dry ice applications are unique compared to using alternative means of chilling and freezing. Many poultry plants have stated CO2 rice dry ice pellets are more desirable than the standard 3/4 inch pellets, in packaging boxed poultry, as well as for use in other applications in the plant like mixing and blending. Further along these lines, CO2 snow is unique in grinding and blending operations, rather than other alternatives for refrigeration, delivering further benefits such as the creation of an anaerobic environment due to sublimation into gases. Some of these properties are unique to CO2 alone – therefore, CO2 is truly resilient in food processing unlike any other cryogen or agent.
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