A blast chiller cools food very quickly by rapidly blowing cold air over it. The food is then usually removed from the blast chiller and stored in a regular freezer. Unlike blast freezers, blast chillers are not essential for food safety reasons. But there are many benefits to having one. For example, they can improve the quality of the food by locking in nutrients and taste, and they can help cut back on food waste.

Blast freezing is the workhorse method of freezing seafood products in the fishing industry, simply because it is the most versatile. Second behind blast freezing is plate freezing, which is the king of block frozen products.The difference between a freezer and a blast chiller is that a freezer holds food at below freezing temperature while a blast chiller cools food quickly by blowing cold air over the food product and gradually dropping the temperature in the chamber.