FST 151

FOOD FREEZING
FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 151
(3 units)
WINTER QUARTER OF ODD-NUMBERED YEARS

Prof. Vinod K. Jindal

(Formerly Professor, Asian Institute of Technology)
Visiting Professor
Chemical Engineering Department
Mahidol University
Salaya, Nakornpathom
Thailand
Introduction to Food

COURSE GOALS:
To acquaint the student with the chemistry and
physics of the freezing process in both model
systems and in food.
To provide an explanation for many standard
industry practices.
To discuss the consequences of freezing on
food and other biological systems, and to
provide a framework on which the student can
build a fuller appreciation of the techniques
and technical problems of freezing.
Introduction to Food

TEXT USED:
No text is required for purchase.
For those who wish to add a text on freezing
to their libraries, "The Low-Temperature
Preservation of Foods and Living Matter", by
O.R. Fennema, W. D. Powrie and E. Marth
is recommended.
Material and books will be placed on reserve
in the Food Science Library, and readings
will be assigned as appropriate. Hand-out
material will be supplied where required.
Introduction to Food

COURSE FORMAT:
The course will be taught as a lecture course
with three 1-hour lectures per week.
Demonstrations may be included where
appropriate.
Grading will be based on a midterm (30%) and
a final examination (40%) together with
homework assignments (30%).

Introduction to Food

TOPICAL OUTLINE:

Introduction (1)
The methods of freezing (2)
Quality aspects of frozen foods (6)
The basic science of food freezing (3)
The freezing process (4)
Chemical and physical consequences (7)
Cell freezing and freezing damage (8)
Reactions in frozen systems (9)
Microbiology (10)
Processes of deterioration during frozen storage
(11)

Modeling the freezing process (5)

Thawing (12)
Miscellaneous, including cryobiology (13)
Introduction to Food

PRESERVATION OF FOODS
BY LOWERING THE
TEMPERATURE
THEORY:
LOWERING THE STORAGE
TEMPERATURE OF THE FOOD
WILL REDUCE OR PREVENT
SPOILAGE BY MICROORGANISMS
AND/OR CHEMICAL REACTIONS.
Introduction to Food

I.

REFRIGERATION - Temperatures
typically between 45 - 32F (7.2 - 0C).
Preferably below 38F.
THEORY:
- LOWER TEMPERATURE WILL
REDUCE SPOILAGE.

Introduction to Food

TRADITIONAL REFRIGERATED FOODS

1. Fresh foods (unprocessed), fruits and
vegetables, (fresh meats, poultry, fish)
2. Processed foods: doughs, minimally
processed vegetables
3. Refrigerated foods containing fruits and
vegetables: entrees, dinners, salads.
(Pasteurized dairy products cured meats)
Introduction to Food

WHY DO WE SEE MORE NEW

REFRIGERATED FOODS
ENTERING THE MARKETPLACE
THAN OTHER FOODS?
1. Consumer demand for high quality foods:
A. Typically less change in the quality of
food product.
B. Convenient - shorter cook times
Introduction to Food

2. Changes in food distribution

A. Buying habits
B. Improved food distribution
3. Improved processing techniques
A. Aseptic processes
B. Gas storage [CA (controlled
atmosphere and MAP (modified
atmosphere packaging)]
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Chilling
Fridges have been used since the 1920s.
It is only possible to use fridges for a short amount
of time as microbial activity still takes place and
the food will still decay.
Fridges should kept at between 1oC and 8oC.
Many foods that are sold in shops are refrigerated
during transit and storage.
Fish usually has a shelf life of about 3-5 days in
the fridge.
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Chilling (contd)
Chilling slows down:
The rate at which micro-organisms multiply
The rate of any chemical reactions which
could affect the quality of food
They need to stay at or below this
temperature until they are used. For this
reason they are always sold from the chiller
cabinets in shops.

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Advantages of Chilling
There is very little change in flavour,
colour, texture or shape.
Fresh foods can be kept at maximum
quality for a longer time.
The consumer can be offered a much
larger range of fresh and convenience
foods.
Nutrients are not destroyed.
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Chilled foods are grouped into three categories

according to their storage temperature range:
1. -1C to +1C (fresh fish, meats, sausages and ground
meats, smoked meats and breaded fish).
2. 0C to +5C (pasteurized canned meat, milk, cream,
yoghurt, prepared salads, sandwiches, baked goods, fresh
pasta, fresh soups and sauces, pizzas, pastries and unbaked
dough).
3. 0C to +8C (fully cooked meats and fish pies, cooked or
uncooked cured meats, butter, margarine, hard cheese,
cooked rice, fruit juices and soft fruits).
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II. FREEZING TEMPERATURES

< 32oF (0C)
Change in water from liquid to solid.
THEORY:
1. Lower temperature. Will reduce spoilage.
2. Water is unavailable for microorganisms
and chemical reactions.

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WHY FREEZE?
1. In general frozen foods are better
nutritionally and organoleptically than other
processed foods.
2. Long shelf life
3. Convenient - shorter cook times
DISADVANTAGE:
Energy intensive

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Principles of Freezing
Does not sterilize food.
Extreme cold (0oF or -18oC colder):
Stops growth of microorganisms and
Slows chemical changes, such as enzymatic
reactions.

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17

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. The
immobilization of water to ice and the resulting
concentration of dissolved solutes in unfrozen
water lower the water activity (aw) of the food
Preservation is achieved by a combination of low
temperatures, reduced water activity and, in some
foods, pre-treatment by blanching.
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Freezing
Frozen food can be kept for a very long
period of time. Usually about 3 months.
Deep freezing is the reduction of
temperature in a food to a point where
microbial activity cease.
A freezer should be kept at -18oC to -25oC.

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Effect of Freezing on Food

Low temperatures do not significantly affect the
nutritional value of food, but thiamin and vitamin C
may be destroyed when vegetables are blanched
(briefly immersed in boiling water) before freezing.
If fish is frozen too slowly, some of its cells may
rupture and release nutrients into the liquid that
drips from the fish when it thaws.
Some flavours become weaker and some become
stronger when food is frozen.

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Advantages of Freezing
Many foods can be frozen.
Natural color, flavor, and nutritive value
retained.
Texture usually better than other methods
of food preservation.
Foods can be frozen in less time than they
can be dried or canned.
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Advantages of Freezing
Simple procedures.
Adds convenience to food preparation.
Proportions can be adapted to needs unlike
other home preservation methods.
Kitchen remains cool and comfortable.

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Disadvantages of Freezing
Texture of some foods is undesirable
because of freezing process.
Initial investment and cost of maintaining
freezer is high.
Storage space limited by capacity of
freezer.

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How Freezing Affects Food

Chemical changes
Enzymes in vegetables
Enzymes in fruit
Rancidity

Texture Changes
Expansion of food
Ice crystals

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ISSUES with FROZEN FOODS

1. Chemical reactions can occur in unfrozen
water.
A. Some foods blanched or sulfited before
freezing.
B. Vacuum packaging to keep out oxygen.

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ISSUES with FROZEN FOODS (cont.)

2. Undesirable physical changes
A. Fruits and vegetables lose crispness
B. Drip loss in meats and colloidal type foods
(starch, emulsions)
Freeze product faster
Control temperature fluctuations in storage.
Modify starch, egg systems, etc.

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2. Undesirable physical changes (cont.)

C. Freezer burn
Package properly
Control temperature fluctuations in storage.

D. Oxidation
Off-flavors
Vitamin loss
Browning

E. Recrystallization
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The major groups of commercially

frozen foods are:
Fruits (strawberries, oranges, raspberries) either whole or
pureed, or as juice concentrates
Vegetables (peas, green beans, sweet corn, spinach, and
potatoes)
Fish fillets and sea foods (cod, plaice, shrimps and crab meat)
including fish fingers, fish cakes or prepared dishes with an
accompanying sauce
Meats (beef, lamb, poultry) as carcasses, boxed joints or
cubes, and meat products (sausages, beefburgers, reformed
steaks)
Baked goods (bread, cakes, fruit and meat pies)
Prepared foods (pizzas, desserts, ice cream, complete meals
and cookfreeze dishes).

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Technology of frozen foods

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The effect of refrigeration on foods is

two folds :
A decrease in temperature results in a
slowing down of chemical, microbiological
and biochemical processes.
At temperature below 0oC water freezes out
of solution as ice, which is equivalent in
terms of water availability to dehydration or
a reduction in aw.
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Effect of freezing on tissues

Foods do not have sharp freezing points,
but freeze over a range of temperature
depending on the water content and cell
composition.
Rapid freezing, and storage without wide
fluctuations in temperature, lead to small
intracellular ice crystals and maintenance
tissues with minimum damage to cell
membranes.
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Effect of freezing on microorganisms

The growth of microorganisms in foods at temperatures
below about 12oC has been confirmed. Thus storage
of frozen foods at about 18oC and below prevents
microbiological spoilage.
Although microbial numbers are usually reduced
during freezing and frozen storage (except for spores),
frozen foods are not sterile and can spoil as rapidly as
the unfrozen product if temperature are sufficiently
high and storage times at these temperatures are
excessive.
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Methods of freezing
Freezing techniques include :
- The use of cold air blasts or other low temperature
gases coming in contact with the food, e.g. blasts,
tunnel, fluidized bed, spiral, belt freezers.
- Indirect contact freezing, e.g. plate freezers, where
packaged foods or liquids are brought into contact
with metal surfaces (plate, cylinders) cooled by
circulating refrigerant (multi-plate freezers).
- Direct immersion of the food into a liquid refrigerant,
or spraying liquid refrigerant over the food (e.g. liquid
nitrogen, and freon, sugar or salt solutions).
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TYPES OF FREEZING:
1. AIR FREEZING - Products frozen by
either "still" or "blast" forced air.
cheapest (investment)
"still" slowest, more changes in product
"blast" faster, more commonly used

2. INDIRECT CONTACT - Food placed in

direct contact with cooled metal surface.
relatively faster
more expensive
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TYPES OF FREEZING (cont.):

3. DIRECT CONTACT - Food placed in
direct contact with refrigerant (liquid
nitrogen, "green" freon, carbon dioxide
snow)
faster
expensive
freeze individual food particles

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Commercial Freezing
Blast freezing a very cold air blasted on the
food cools food very quickly.
Close indirect contact food is placed in a multiplate freezer and is rapidly frozen.
Immersion food is placed into a very cold
liquid (usually salt water brine) or liquid
nitrogen, this is known as cryonic freezing.
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Freezing equipment
Mechanical Freezers
- Evaporate and compress the refrigerant in
a continuous cycle
Cryogenic Systems
- Use solid and liquid CO2, N2 directly in
contact with the food

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Alternative Classification
Based upon the rate of movement of ice
front
Slow Freezers 0.2 cm/h
- Still air and cold stores
Quick Freezers 0.5-3 cm/h
- Air blast and plate freezers
Rapid Freezers 5-10 cm/h
- Fluidized bed freezers
Ultra rapid Freezers 10-100 cm/h
- Cryogenic freezers
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Cooled-air freezers

Chest freezers food is frozen in stationary (naturalcirculation) air at between -20C and -30C. Chest freezers
are not used for commercial freezing owing to low
freezing rates (372 h).

A major problem with cold stores is ice formation on

floors, walls and evaporator coils, caused by moisture from
the air or from unpackaged products in the store.

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Blast freezers:
Air is recirculated over food at between -30C and -40C at
a velocity of 1.56.0 m s1. The high air velocity reduces
the thickness of boundary films surrounding the food and
thus increases the surface heat transfer coefficient.
In batch equipment, food is stacked on trays in rooms or
cabinets. Continuous equipment consists of trolleys
stacked with trays of food or on conveyor belts which
carry the food through an insulated tunnel. The trolleys
should be fully loaded to prevent air from bypassing the
food through spaces between the trays.

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 Belt freezers (spiral freezers) have a continuous flexible

mesh belt which is formed into spiral tiers and carries food
up through a refrigerated chamber. In some designs each
tier rests on the vertical sides of the tier beneath and the
belt is therefore selfstacking. This eliminates the need for
support rails and improves the capacity by up to 50% for a
given stack height.

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 Fluidized-bed freezers are modified blast freezers

in which air at between -25C and -35C is passed
at a high velocity (26 m/s) through a 213 cm
bed of food, contained on a perforated tray or
conveyor belt. In some designs there are two
stages; after initial rapid freezing in a shallow bed
to produce an ice glaze on the surface of the food,
freezing is completed on a second belt in beds 10
15 cm deep.

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Rapid Freezer: Fluidized Bed

Food is contained on a perforated tray or
conveyer belt.
Air between -25 to -35oC is passed at
high velocity (2-6 m/s).
Each food comes in contact with air
individually.
IQF: Individually Quick Frozen
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A typical fluidized bed freezer

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Cooled-surface freezers
Plate freezers consist of a vertical or horizontal stack of
hollow plates, through which refrigerant is pumped at
----40C . They may be batch, semi-continuous or
continuous in operation. Flat, relatively thin foods (for
example filleted fish, fish fingers or beef burgers) are
placed in single layers between the plates and a slight
pressure is applied by moving the plates together.

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Plate freezing system

In these types of freezing systems, the product is
held firmly between two plates throughout the
period of time required for product temperature
reduction. The plates are the primary barrier
between the cold refrigerant and the product.
These types of freezing systems have a definite
advantage when the product configuration allows
for direct and close contact between the plate
surface and the product surface.
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Plate freezing
Ideal for thin, flat foods such as steak, fish fillets or
burgers.
The food is placed between two plates which
make contact with the foods surface.
This speeds up the freezing process & freezing
occurs evenly throughout the food

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Introduction to Food

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Batch Freezer
Blast
Type

Source: Unit operations for food the food industries by: W.A. Gould

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Double Contact Plate Freezer

Hydraulic
Pump

Top
Pressure
plate
Connecting
Linkage
Corner
Headers
Refrigerant
hoses
Trays

Polyurethane and polystyrene

insulated doors

Introduction to Food

Contact
plates

Source: Unit operations for food the food industries by:

W.A. Gould

51

Cooled-liquid freezers
In immersion freezers, packaged food is passed
through a bath of refrigerated propylene glycol,
brine, glycerol or calcium chloride solution on a
submerged mesh conveyor.

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Immersion freezing
In immersion freezing, food is placed in a refrigerant
prior to freezing.
Brine is often used for fish, and a sugar solution for
fruits.
This provides a layer which protects the food from
the dry atmosphere of the freezer.

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Cryogenic freezers
Freezers of this type are characterized by a change
of state in the refrigerant (or cryogen) as heat is
absorbed from the freezing food. The heat from
the food therefore provides the latent heat of
vaporization or sublimation of the cryogen. The
cryogen is in intimate contact with the food and
rapidly removes heat from all surfaces of the food
to produce high heat transfer coefficients and rapid
freezing. The two most common refrigerants are
liquid nitrogen and solid or liquid carbon dioxide.

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Cryogenic Freezing
Uses liquid nitrogen which is very cold (-196C)
Food passes through a tunnel where nitrogen gas is
sprayed downwards. A beefburger will be frozen in
1 minute at these extreme temperatures.
This produces small crystals, and little moisture loss.
This method is used when freezing prawns. The
prawns are first dipped in liquid nitrogen to freeze the
outside layer. This prevents the prawns sticking
together and from sticking to the freezer belts.
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Cryogenic freezer

Source: Fellows (2000)

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Cryogenic
freezer

Ultra rapid:
Direct Contact Liquid Nitrogen Tunnel
Freezer

IQF

Source: Unit operations for food the food industries by:

W.A. Gould

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Continuous Fluidized Bed

System
In these types of freezing systems, the product
moves on a conveyor into the cold environment in a
manner similar to air blast systems. In a fluidized
bed system, the cold air used as a freezing medium is
directed upward through the mesh conveyor at
velocities sufficient to cause vibration and
movement of product on the conveying system. The
vibration or movement of product while being
conveyed, increases the contact between cold air and
the product and reduces the time required for
freezing.
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Continuous Immersion Freezing

System
For products where rapid freezing is
appropriate, direct contact between a liquid
refrigerant such as nitrogen or carbon
dioxide may be used. The product is
carried on a conveyor through a bath of
liquid refrigerant to establish direct and
intimate contact with the liquid refrigerant.
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Continuous Cryogenic Freezing

Systems
The product on a conveyor moves through
a tunnel where it is exposed to a spray of
liquid refrigerant as it changes phase to
vapor state. The length of time for freezing
is established by the rate of conveyor
movement through the tunnel where the
product is exposed to the cryogenic
refrigerant.
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Scraped surface, continuous

system
These types of freezing systems utilize a
scraped surface heat exchanger as a
primary component of the continuous
system used to convert liquid product into
a frozen slurry. In these systems, the outer
wall of the heat exchanger barrel represents
the barrier between the product and the
low-temperature refrigerant used for
product freezing.
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Thawing
Reverse process of freezing. More difficult than freezing
since:
1.

Transfer of heat of fusion has to be made through a

layer of already thawed product which has a much
lower thermal conductivity (about 1/4th), and thermal
diffusivity (about 1/8th), as compared to frozen product.

2.

The driving force for heat transfer, the temperature

difference between the surrounding and the thermal
center is limited due to heat damage on food.
Thawing is done by using hot air blasts, by immersion
in hot water, by microwave, dielectric and resistance
heating.
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Thanks
for
your attention

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