It’s your worst nightmare—the health inspector shows up at your establishment, finds a walk-in door left open or an above 41ºF temperature reading on the display and dings you with a violation.

Walk-in doors opening and closing all day can be the source of major food safety and spoilage issues in a foodservice operation. There’s a way to stay on top of this.

Three words: Kolpak Air Shield.

The Kolpak Air Shields are the gift to commercial kitchens that replace those pesky strip curtains collecting dust and debris, catching on workers’ clothes or worse, touching faces and then containers of food. Those strips are not only a major hassle at the back of the house, but they’re also big carriers of germs. No one wants that during an ongoing pandemic.

Air shields work by forcing cold air through an open doorway to create a barrier from the inside to the outside and prevent cold air from escaping the unit. This not only helps maintain food safe temperatures, it also better preserves the food, which is imperative these days as food costs go up and supply chain shortages continue to plague the restaurant and foodservice industry.

Designed to mount vertically, adjacent to the walk-in door on the interior wall surface, Kolpak’s Air Shield features an innovative air delivery system that channels a barrier of refrigerated air which flows horizontally across the interior side of the door opening. The Air Shield is automatically activated when the door is opened and shuts off when the door closes, significantly reducing the amount of warm air infiltration into the refrigerated space. In short, Kolpak’s air shields keep the cold air in and the warm air out and are available for both coolers and freezers.

The other nice thing about air shields is that they won’t break the bank (or someone’s back during installation) compared to other capital expenditures, but they can save hundreds to thousands of dollars on potentially spoiled food.

When the walk-in door is closed, Kolpak’s 100% foamed-in-place polyurethane panels (CFC/HCHC Free) offer superior insulating capabilities to keep temperatures where they need to be. Bright LED lighting allow staff to easily see everything inside without having to keep a door open for extra light. But, even if a worker were to stand in the walk-in with the door still ajar, Kolpak’s air shields have already kicked in to do their job.

To learn more about Kolpak Air Shields and other products, visit kolpak.com.