Can You Use an Open Air Curtain Cabinet (Multideck) to Store Fresh Meat, Seafood, and Frozen Products?

Here Are the 5 Hard Reasons Why Many supermarket and fresh market owners see that air curtain cabinets (open multideck chillers) are 30–50% cheaper and look attractive, so they want to use them for fresh meat, seafood, and frozen items.
The truth is brutal: open air curtain cabinets are completely unsuitable for these products. Using them will only cause spoilage, weight loss, and big financial damage.

Air curtain cabinets only rely on a thin “air curtain” to block cold air. Every time a customer reaches in or the shop fan blows, the temperature instantly jumps 5–10°C.

• Fresh meat needs strict 0~4°C constant
• Seafood needs even stricter -1~2°C
• Frozen products require ≤-18°C

Real test: during business hours, temperature easily climbs to 8–12°C. Meat goes bad the same day, seafood dies within 4 hours, frozen items turn into water in 2 hours.

Typical humidity in air curtain cabinets: only 50–70%.

• Fresh meat and seafood require 85–95%.

Result: meat surface dries and darkens in 4–6 hours, seafood shells crack, weight loss reaches 10–20% in one day (= direct profit loss). A sealed meat chiller keeps products moist for 24+ hours.

Open design = dust, bacteria, flies, and customers’ hands can touch the products directly.
Fresh meat and seafood are high-protein foods that breed Salmonella and E. coli extremely fast once temperature rises. Many countries (EU, Middle East, Nigeria SONCAP, etc.) now have stricter HACCP rules in 2025 — using open cabinets for raw meat/seafood can fail inspection and get heavy fines.

To maintain the air curtain, the compressor runs at full power 24 hours. When you put fresh meat/seafood inside, cold loss is even worse → monthly electricity is several hundred dollars more than a glass-door cabinet. Long-term storage is never cost-effective.

Air curtain cabinets are made for “quick-grab” items: drinks, yogurt, pre-packed salad, etc.
They are NOT designed for delicate raw proteins. Using them for fresh meat/seafood/frozen is like using a sports car to haul cargo — it looks possible, but it fails fast.