How much does microwave thawing save? A step-by-step calculation
In a thawing room, meat and fish lose 5–10 % of their weight. Microwave tempering takes minutes and the loss is virtually zero. We show how to calculate the savings for your production and where more money is hidden.
Frozen raw material is everyday reality for many food producers: meat, fish, butter or vegetables are bought at the right moment and stored at −18 °C. Before processing, however, they have to be thawed, and that costs more money than it seems at first glance. How much exactly, and how much of it does microwave tempering save?
Thawing or tempering?
Most production does not need the raw material fully thawed. It is enough to temper it: bring it from −18 °C to around −4 to −2 °C, where it can be sliced, minced or portioned but does not yet release juice. Microwaves do this in 5–10 minutes throughout the whole block. In a thawing room it takes 24–48 hours, and the material ends up warm on the surface and still frozen inside.
The biggest item: weight loss
During slow thawing, juice drains from the raw material (drip loss). For meat and fish this is typically 5–10 % of the weight. You paid for that raw material, but it never makes it into the product.
Microwave tempering takes minutes and the material stays below freezing point, so the loss is virtually zero.
How to calculate the savings
annual savings = kg per day × working days × loss in % × raw material price per kg
Example 1: meat processing, 2 tonnes a day
| Meat thawed | 2,000 kg a day |
| Working days | 250 a year |
| Loss in the thawing room | 5 % |
| Purchase price of meat | €5/kg |
| Raw material saved | 25,000 kg a year |
| Savings | €125,000 a year |
Example 2: smaller production, 500 kg of pork a day
| Meat thawed | 500 kg a day |
| Working days | 250 a year |
| Loss in the thawing room | 5 % |
| Purchase price of meat | €4/kg |
| Raw material saved | 6,250 kg a year |
| Savings | €25,000 a year |
We calculate conservatively with 5 %. If your raw material loses more, the savings grow proportionally. Enter your own figures in the payback calculator, which also suggests a suitable machine for your volume.
Further savings the calculator leaves out
Weight loss is the easiest to quantify, but it is not the only one. On top of it come:
- Energy. A thawing room has to be cooled continuously, even when nothing is being thawed. A microwave machine only runs while tempering and starts instantly without preheating.
- Space. A thawing room takes up a whole room with two days of raw material stock. A microwave machine is one machine on the line, and the space freed up can be used for production.
- Planning. With a thawing room you need to know two days in advance what you will produce. With microwaves you temper to current orders, and you are not left with thawed material that cannot be refrozen.
- Quality and safety. The material does not sit for hours with a warm surface where bacteria can grow. It has the same temperature throughout the block, so it slices and minces better and the product is more consistent.
- Labour. No more restacking blocks, waiting for thawing or cleaning the room.
When the investment pays back
With microwave tempering, the investment usually pays back within about 18 months thanks to lower raw material losses and lower energy consumption. Fastest where:
- hundreds of kilograms to tonnes of raw material are thawed every day,
- the raw material is more expensive, such as beef, fish or butter,
- the loss in the thawing room is higher than 5 %,
- production needs to respond flexibly to orders.
Funding and financing can also help: the savings alone often cover the instalments.
What it looks like in practice
- A frozen ready-meal producer reduced drip loss by 3 % and saves over €400,000 a year. Case study
- A sausage producer tempers 18 tonnes of meat a day in under 5 minutes instead of 18 hours. Case study
- A food company thaws butter in under 10 minutes instead of 5 to 6 days. Case study
For a detailed comparison of all methods, see Food thawing methods.
Verify it on your own raw material
The figures in the calculator are based on tests by the manufacturer Sairem. We verify the exact time, capacity and weight loss with a test on your raw material. We prepare it free of charge, usually once we are discussing a specific application together. More about testing · Sairem microwave tempering
