Chapter 15 - Food Freezing Technology

Abstract

Freezing of food products is one of the oldest methods of preservation of foods. Advances in mechanical refrigeration during the late 19th century led to commercial exploitation of freezing technology. Nowadays, the freezing preservation of foods has transformed into an important unit operation in food processing. In addition to serving the purpose of preservation, freezing is one of the essential process steps in the manufacture of certain foods such as ice cream, frozen yogurt, etc. To better utilize this unit operation, it is essential to have firsthand knowledge of the process of freezing, phase change, heat loads, different equipment options, freezing time prediction, factors affecting the freezing process, and how the process of freezing impacts the frozen food. In this chapter, we review several of these critical topics.