Zunaira Ilyas

SP20-FSN-041
 Freezing
Freezing is the unit operation in which the temperature of a
food is reduced below its freezing point and a proportion of
the water undergoes a change in state to form ice crystals.

Freezing process is a combination of the beneficial

effects of low temperature at which micro-organisms
cannot grow, chemical changes are reduced and
cellular metabolic reactions are delayed.
• Sensible heat is first removed to lower the temperature of
food to the freezing point.
• Heat produced by respiration in case of fresh foods (fruits
and vegetables) is also removed
 Titles

 Freezing and Its Emerging Techniques in Food

Preservation
 Comparison of freezing and convective
dehydrofreezing of vegetables for reducing
cell damage
 Abstract
Freezing is a standard method to preserve perishable agricultural products
such as fruits and vegetables, which increases off-season availability.
Nevertheless, freezing of plant tissue with high water content causes cellular
damage by the formation of ice crystals. This damage leads to drip loss and
decreased firmness, which then reduces the quality of the thawed product.
We found that convective dehydrofreezing of bell pepper leads on average to
a 52% firmer product in comparison with conventional freezing at − 20 ◦C.
For dehydro- frozen carrot, the firmness was similarly increased by 35%.
Freezing is an ancient technology for preserving foods. Freezing halts the
activities of spoilage microorganisms in and on foods and can preserve some
microorganisms for long periods of time. Frozen foods have an excellent
overall safety record.
Freezing kills microorganisms by physical and chemical effects and possibly
through induced genetic changes.
 Objective
 The primary objective of freezing is to reduce microbial
growth to a level that will maximize both food safety and
shelf life.
 The process involves lowering the product temperature
generally to -18 °C or below
 The physical state of food material is changed when
energy is removed by cooling below freezing temperature.
 The extreme cold simply retards the growth of
microorganisms and slows down the chemical changes
that affect quality or cause food to spoil
 Materials
Materials:
Carrot (cv. not known), sweet red bell pepper
(cv. California
Wonder), and cucumber (cv. not known) were
purchased at a local supermarket. All vegetables
were stored at 4 ◦C and were washed before
the experiments.
 Methods of freezing
HIGH PRESSURE FREEZING: Use of high
pressure promotes uniform and rapid ice
nucleation thus produces smaller crystals.
DEHYDROFREEZING: Food is dehydrated to a
desirable moisture and then frozen. It has the
advantage of less damage to plant texture.
APPLICATION OF ICE NUCLEATION AND
ANTIFREEZE PROTEINS: ice nucleation
protein directly acts as a nucleus thus causes rapid
nucleation and ultimately rapid freezing while as
antifreeze proteins can retard recrystallisation in
frozen storage.
 Freezing curve of food

The freezing process in food is more complex than

just the freezing of pure water. Foods contain other
dissolved solutes in addition to water, which
display a similar behaviour when frozen. 
The temperature evolution with time during the
freezing process is called freezing curve. The
freezing curve of a typical solution is shown in the
figure below.
Freezing curve of food(cont.)
Relationship between drip loss and moisture
content before freezing on carrot (green), bell
pepper (blue), and cucumber (orange)
 Freezing Techniques

1. Plate Freezing
2. Immersion Freezing
3. Cabinet Freezing
4. Air Blast Freezing
5. Fluidized-Bed Freezing
6. Tunnel Freezing
 Results

In order to assess the freezing process at − 20 ◦C,

freezing rates were measured for conventional
freezing with and without precooling.
Additionally, the freezing curve was obtained for
dehydrofrozen bell pepper after convective
drying with 5% weight loss. The moisture content
of the single sample was not determined; for
comparison, the moisture contents measured for
Carrot from subsequent tests are listed below
Results
Freezing curves the sample surface
for carrot
Graph of moisture content moisture loss drip loss
and Firmness of Carrot
Cross-sections of the scanned
carrot