Rapid cooling of foods: a review

Gain insight into developments with the rapid cooling of meat, poultry and fish products

The chilled and frozen foods sectors are highly innovative in terms of new product development. This is reflected in the on-going quest for more effective and rapid ways of cooling foods - to maximise quality retention whilst achieving the degree of preservation necessary for safe and wholesome food. Due to the variety of foods to be cooled there is no single method of cooling that can be universally applied, with different approaches adopted for different products.

This review, which pulls together information from the scientific literature, the trade press and web-published articles, describes a range of emerging developments and novel methods for the rapid cooling of foods. After introducing the importance and potential benefits of rapid cooling and a discussion of its theoretical basis, the review works in turn through each of a series of approaches and then considers their effects on the food product, with particular emphasis on meat, poultry and fish. The list of references provides useful pointers to source information, to help the reader explore areas of interest in more detail. The review will be of interest to technical and product development personnel in the chilled and frozen food industries.

Contents:

• Introduction

• Theoretical basis of cooling foods

      - Heat transfer in solid foods
      - Heat transfer in liquid foods
      - Mathematical modelling of food cooling

• Techniques proposed for rapid cooling of foods

      - Plate and air blast chilling and freezing
      - Immersion chilling and freezing
      - Vacuum cooling
      - Pressure shift freezing
      - Dehydrofreezing
      - Advances in cryogenics for chilling and freezing
      - Ice slurry chilling and freezing
      - Novel cooling systems

• Effect of rapid cooling practices on food product characteristics

      - Meat and meat products
      - Poultry and poultry products
      - Fish and fish products
      - Prepared foods

• Ongoing R&D relevant to the rapid chilling and freezing of foods
  
  
• Conclusions
  
  
• Bibliography and references
  
  

Softcover - 52 pages

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