Review on the control of ice nucleation by ultrasound waves, electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

International audienceFreezing is the most popular and widely used food preservation method of the modern times. The freezing process of food matrices is related to their high water content and its metamorphoses into ice on cooling. The final quality of the frozen product is highly depended on the ice crystal morphology because it can cause irreversible damage on the microstructure of the food matrix. Supercooling and ice nucle-ation temperature need to be controlled both in suppressing and inducing the solidification to improve technological processes such as freeze drying, freeze concentration, cryopreservation, ice formation and cold-energy storage both in food industry and domestic preservation. However, the mechanism of freezing is not yet well known and it is affected by several factors. Several emerging technologies have been recently proposed for ice nucleation control during freezing. This review article is focused on the alternative freezing methods such as ultrasound waves, magnetic, electric, and electromagnetic field assisted freezing. In addition, the properties, mechanism of action and possible applications of electrofreezing are extensively discussed

Effect of microwave assisted blanching on the ascorbic acid oxidase inactivation and vitamin C degradation in frozen mangoes

“…Several preservation methods have been investigated, developed and exploited over the last years to preserve fruits and vegetables but freezing still remains one of the most popular among them offering fresh-like characteristics on the food matrix after long period of storage (Barba, Ahrné, Xanthakis, Landerslev, & Orlien, 2018;Dalvi-Isfahan, Hamdami, Xanthakis, & Le-Bail, 2017;Jha, Xanthakis, Jury, & Le-Bail, 2017). Blanching is a common mild thermal pretreatment prior to freezing aiming to inactivate deteriorative enzymes, decrease the microbial load and remove the air from the pores which subsequently can affect the nutritional characteristics of the fruits and vegetables upon storage (Munyaka, Makule, Oey, Van Loey, & Hendrickx, 2010;Xanthakis & Valdramidis, 2017).…”

The Effect of Electrode Gap on the Nucleation of CaCl2.6H2O by using Sharp End Copper Electrode

“…Spontaneously, nucleation happens when the change of Gibbs free energy is negative ( 0  G ) [7]. Nucleation is influenced by volume contribution of Gibbs free energy, V G  (free energy between a very large particle and solute in solution) and the surface contribution of Gibbs free energy, S G  (energy between surface of particle and the bulk of particle) [7], [16]. Gibbs free energy of spherical crisstallite in a solution without supplied static electric field,…”

An Overview on Magnetic Field and Electric Field Interactions with Ice Crystallisation; Application in the Case of Frozen Food

“…Torques exerted by the FEF at given temperature, may increase the number of isomeric configurations, thereby reducing the chance of configuration of cluster of molecules which is well suited to integrate into a crystal lattice. As a consequence, the crystal growth rate will decrease extensively [59,61]. Another hypothesis states that the vibration and collision induced by the FEF could produce thinner solid-liquid boundaries and decrease heat transfer resistance, similar to acoustic stress [35,62].…”

“…These are: (i) Anese et al [88] claimed that the application of ER causes depression in the freezing point and thereby produces more nucleation sites (ii) the torque exerted by ER displaces the water molecules from their equilibrium relationships in the ice cluster resulting in break-down of existing ice crystals. The disintegrated ice crystals may act as a nucleation sites and promote the secondary nucleation, thus, causing ice crystal size reduction [14,59,61,87,88,93]; and, (iii) ER may decrease the ice crystal growth rate and consequently increase the number of ice crystals [59].…”