Dehydrofreezing
Núñez Yomira, Ortega María, Ortiz Melanie, Paredes Cindy
Facultad de Ingeniería Mecánica y Ciencias de la Producción
Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Abstract
Dehydrofreezing is a complementary process
to freezing because food is dehydrated to the
desired moisture content prior to frozen
storage. This process avoids the formation of
large ice crystals, avoiding damage to the
cellular structure of the food and, in turn, the
freezing time is reduced by the low water
content. It is especially applied to fruits and
vegetables due to their high perishability and
because their cellular structure is less elastic.
This procedure was developed in 1940,
however it is commercially applied only to
products such as potatoes, carrots and onions,
for this reason, the objective is to make a
literary review of the most recent applications
on dehydrofreezing.
Keywords: Dehydrofreezing, dehydrated,
frozen storage.
Resumen
La deshidrocongelación es un proceso
complementario de la congelación debido a
que el alimento se deshidrata hasta el
contenido de humedad deseado previo al
almacenamiento en congelación. Este proceso
evita la formación de grandes cristales de hielo
evitando el daño la estructura celular del
alimento y a su vez, el tiempo de congelación
se ve reducido por el bajo contenido de agua.
Se aplica especialmente a frutas y verduras por
su elevada perecebilidad y porque su
estructura celular es menos elástica. Este
procedimiento fue desarrollado en el año 1940,
sin embargo, se aplica comercialmente solo a
productos como papas, zanahorias y cebollas,
por esta razón, el objetivo es hacer una
revisión literaria de las más recientes
aplicaciones sobre deshidrocongelación.
Palabras clave: Deshidrocongelación,
deshidratación, Almacenamiento congelado.
1. Latest research
Dehydrofreezing is a process for preservation
of food by evaporation of 50-60% of the water
before freezing, the main products vinculated
to this process are fruits and vegetables
because this products there are prone to more
damage during freezing. The organoleptics
characteristics are better preserved that in
other process as freezing and the posterior
rehydration is more quickly (Oxford, 2020).
This method is an adjunct to freezing but later
that a deshidratation the food to a desirable
moisture content (James et al.,2014).
(James et al.,2014) in their article A critical
Review of Dehydrofreezing of Fruits and
vegetables, found that in the last years there
has been increased the interest of this kind of
preservation process. In that review their
autors compared different pre-treatments as
osmotic deshydration using a hypertonic
solution as syrup, sucrose or fructose and salts,
but they affirm that is important evaluate the
freezing rate because it will be a problem for
the pretreatments and sensory quality. (Ando
et al.,2011). Consider that the method of
freezing proposed in that last paper (Osmotic
dehidrofreezing) had no effect on the cell
membrane induced by freeze-thawing, so their
focus this research on the undestanding of:
mechanical texture parameters, fracture stress,
because there are related to the cell wall and
initial modulus related to the cell membrane.

Treating fruits with steam and partial
dehydration or only partial drying before
frozen storage (dehydro-freezing) is a
successful treatment, it improved the quality of
fruits or vegetables during freezing storage and
thawing. Dehydro-frozen fruits as well as
dehydrated fruits, preserve their nutritional
components, it had the better texture values
and total phenols, and their organoleptic
characteristics with good scores of taste and
peel adhesion. This indicated the possibility of
using dehydro-freezing process in improving
the quality of frozen fruits (El-Sayed et al.,
2017)
2. Application (Technology)
It is known that dehydrofreezing is an adjunct
to freezing in which a food is first dehydrated
to a desirable moisture content and then it is
frozen. This method is applied to vegetables
and fruits because this type of products contain
more water and their cellular structure is less
elastic. It has been proved that dehydrofrozen
fruits and vegetables have a better quality than
frozen products (James et al.,2014).
The first step of dehydration includes a wide
range of physical drying methods, but the most
common are by air drying and osmotic
dehydration. In some studies, mention that the
amount dehydration required depends on the
product, in the dehydration pretreatment and in
the freezing method, and it must be removed at
least 30 to 50% of water.
In a study it was evaluated the effect of
osmotic dehydration and hot air-drying,
applied before the freezing process, on the end
quality of pineapple slices. Quality loss was
measured through drip loss, ascorbic acid
content and mechanical properties changes of
tissue. The freezing was in a conventional air-
blast tunnel at -31.5 ± 2 °C. Mechanical
properties of fresh and dehydrated fruit, with
and without the later process of freezing, were
evaluated through compression tests. Osmotic
dehydration and hot air-drying have the
beneficial effect of reducing the time
necessary for pineapple samples freezing. The
freezing–thawing process affects the values of
pineapple samples mechanical properties. The
ascorbic acid content was found to be
diminished in fresh fruit after the freezing–
thawing process. While ascorbic acid losses
were greater during the osmotic dehydration
than with air dehydration. (Ramallo &
Mascheroni, 2010)
There are few public data on if the quality of
dehydrofrozen fruits or vegetables is affected
by freezing rate or freezing method. Some
studies compared different freezing rates
appear to show that freezing rate is important.
Moyano et al. (2002) reported that freezing
rate had the most significant effect of all
parameters on sensory quality like: flavour,
texture, and water activity of papaya.
From a slow to a fast-freezing rate, the quality
of the product was improve by 16.5%. But the
original work on the dehydrofreezing process
did not indicate that freezing rates of
dehydrofrozen products were “substantially
slower or faster than those of comparable
conventionally frozen fruits or vegetables”
(Tressler and Evers,1957).
Limitations
When talking about limitations on
dehydrofreezing process is hard to tell.
Dehydrofreezing is a relatively new food
preservation method, but it seems to be a
revolutionary method when comparing with
the rest. In fact, comparing the effects of
dehydrofreezing with conventional freezing, is
clear from the published studies that
dehydrofreezing of food potentially offers
numerous advantages over other freezing
methods, both in terms of product quality and
processing efficiencies. The chief advantage of
dehydrofreezing was claimed to be the cost
savings. Since then, more emphasis has been
placed on quality advantages of
dehydrofreezing versus conventional freezing.
Additionally, when studying the effect of
dehydrofreezing on freezing time, there is
evidence that dehydrofreezing times are
shorter than conventional freezing times for
the same product, since there is less water to
freeze (Pham 2008; Shizuka et al. 2008; Wu et
al. 2009; Ramallo and Mascheroni 2010).
Reduced freezing times of 20 to 30%, and
even 50 %, have been reported in comparison
with freezing times of untreated products. As
well as, the effects of this process on energy
savings, because reducing the water load of the
food through dehydrating pretreatments will
reduce the heat load and thus the amount of
energy required to freeze it (Huxsoll 1982).
Crivelli et al. (1987b) estimated energy
savings of 27% for dehydrofreezing as
compared with conventional freezing.
Furthermore, the effects of dehydrofreezing on
thermos-physical properties of food had also
been studied. Some of these are shown in
Tocci and Mascheroni’s (2008) comparison of
the thermal properties of fresh and osmotically
dehydrated Kiwifruit. The water reduction
reduces the enthalpy and heat capacity, and,
combined with absorption of sugars and salts
in the case of osmotic dehydration pre-
treatments, leads to a lowering of the freezing
point temperature.
Conclusion
Dehydro-freezing in an integrated process that
improves the quality of frozen food during
storage, however, there is not as much
information regarding key parameters of
dehydration and freezing or the interaction of
both to enhance the process.
In the literary review it was determined that it
is important to choose the procedure applied
according to the type of food, since there is an
impact not only organoleptic but also in
nutritional losses of the fruit, ascorbic acid
content decreased in fresh fruit after the
freezing process- defrosting. While the
ascorbic acid losses were greater during
osmotic dehydration than with air dehydration.
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