Today, a large number of variants of the archetype are in use: in food retailing, petrol stations and kiosks and in restaurants, wall-mounted refrigerated cabinets, freezers and beverage refrigerators offer food in an appealing way. Supermarkets and restaurateurs use chilled attachments of their saladettes to ensure that the salad buffet survives the day crisp and appetisingly arranged.

The refrigerated cabinets also look just as different as storage times and temperatures, and the intended access options for suppliers and customers: open with side windows, with simple or insulated glass doors, with wide-projecting, curved front panes, as a half-height stand-alone unit with sliding or hinged head glass panes, with and without sliding glass doors at the back for removal by a specialist or for reloading goods.

Glass is the ideal material for the viewing and functional panes of refrigeration cabinets:

• to protect against germs, light, air and access – from contamination and spoilage
• as a food contact material according to Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 hygienic and easy to clean
• Extremely scratch-resistant, stable, non-flammable and very age-resistant for long-term use
• Visually highly transparent, in the high-quality appearance characteristic of the glass, with the possibilities of special illumination of the goods
• Ultimate machinability, e.g. through glass cutting, milling, drilling, grinding, bending, etching, processing into safety and insulating glass, coating / anti-reflective coating and printing with functional prints and decors
• with good to excellent thermal insulation performance, for energy-efficient devices