Abstract
Recrystallization of ice crystals causes deterioration during storage and distribution in frozen foods. Therefore, the recrystallization process has been considered as an important phenomenon which should be controlled and predicted for optimal storage and distribution of frozen foods. However, a systematic understanding of the recrystallization is far from what we have expected because of its simultaneous change of size, shape, and number of ice crystals. Also, the time-consuming storage experiment to investigate the recrystallization behavior is another reason for preventing a systematic understanding of the recrystallizaton since it makes difficult to accumulate the recrystallzaiton experiments. As for the first problem, we succeeded at numerical estimation of change of ice crystal shape by using the concept of fractal. For the problem of time-consuming storage experiments, we showed that the diffusion coefficient of the water molecules in a freeze-concentrated matrix is a useful parameter for predicting recrystallization of ice crystals in model frozen foods; that means, knowing the water diffusion coefficient in a freeze-concentrated matrix would engender prediction of recrystallization rate of ice crystals and save time-consuming storage experiments. These results would help for systematical understanding of recrystallzation of ice crystals in frozen food, which may contribute to solving the global food problem and geoenvironmental issue.
