IQF pasta is undoubtedly one of the most popular products on the global frozen food market. Since the early 2000s, many IQF pasta producers launched new easy to cook pasta products, with different flavors. Moreover, IQF pasta manufacturers produce options such as gluten-free, organic, enriched and fortified pasta, while exploring other grains to diversify their options. However, along with an increasing volume of options came the need for different high-standard methods of preserving the frozen or IQF pasta products, since consumers nowadays have higher expectations and are more sophisticated than ever.

Dried pasta is easy to store and preserve and it has a longer shelf life. But when it comes to cooked and fresh pasta, this is usually made locally, with fresh ingredients, in which case the most prefered option is freezing pasta in order to maintain its color, flavour and shape.

Pasta products can be challenging while freezing, due to their sticky surfaces and fragile texture. However, IQF freezing technologies have overcome those difficulties. Individually quick freezing or IQF is the process of quickly freezing pasta while freezing each piece separately. Almost any shape can be frozen as IQF pasta, thus allowing tremendous flexibility. Pasta may be frozen fully-cooked, partially-cooked (blanched), or in a raw state. One of the biggest advantages of IQF pasta is quality consistency. OctoFrost's advanced quick-freezing technology ensures the same color, volume, taste, and texture of the product.

The demand for innovative products results in a demand for innovative technologies when freezing IQF pasta, and a careful consideration should be given when choosing the optimal IQF technology to freeze pasta products. OctoFrostTM is, at the moment, one of the most innovative and advanced IQF technology available on the market. In order to maintain the IQF pasta's integrity during freezing, OctoFrost's IQF tunnel freezer is equipped with adjustable fluidization in the independently controlled freezing zones. This is a very important aspect, because pasta products with a starch-rich surface are very sticky, forming blocks and lumps during freezing in a traditional IQF belt freezer.

OctoFrostTM ensures a perfect separation due to the three different types of fluidization: bubbling, circulating, and fixed, which can be achieved by optimally adjusting different parameters, based on the needs of each type of product. The circulated (fully) fluidization also contributes to the long production hours, as products don't stick together, don't develop belt marks, and the bed stays clean, which is beneficial for reliable food safety and long freezing shifts.

Another advantage of OctoFrost's IQF tunnel freezer for IQF pasta is that the freezer offers the possibility of a buffering time, in case, for any reason, the line after the freezer should be slowed down. In other words, the speed of IQF pasta advancement can be slowed. Moreover, the bed plate can even perform the backward movement, which is extremely important for producers, as it avoids over-drying of the products.

Besides keeping the product's shape intact using OctoFrost's IQF technology for IQF pasta gives better handling of the product, better control over freezing quality, and reduced risk of microbiological contamination.