Engineering360: "Food freezing technique promises improved quality, reduced energy use"

This is interesting. The container prevents the water from expanding so it cannot crystallize. Consequently, it continues to cool through and below the freezing point instead of giving up the latent heat of fusion (which must be removed in the normal freezing process). Apparently the water is not actually frozen, but is supercooled, in a state similar to the thin film of liquid water that forms under pressure where the blade of an ice skate contacts the surface. Or does it form an amorphous glass-like solid? What is the pressure in the container at sub-freezing temperatures?

What I do not understand is the claim that the process will destroy pathogens, but does minimal damage to the cells of stored food. Are bacteria more vulnerable to pressure changes?

We've been preserving fish this way for many years. Today, a thin film of water is spayed on the fish and then quickly frozen. It seems that it would have the characteristics as the submerged fish. But it doesn't. I'm going to freeze a tomato completely submerged in water and save it for a week. Then, I'm going to thaw it out and see if I can slice it for a hamburger.

This is too early of a report, more like a preprint. To achieve sub-0°C conditions with total immersion in water, the authors require use of a container that has no change in volume. Then they suggest that existing commercial food freezing lines can be modified to allow this work to be done at only modest cost. These two statements do not fit together. After the product has been preserved "isochorically" what is the method for continuing to maintain the total lack of volume change from the processing plant through the distribution network to the ultimate consumer?

I think the theory has some room to be plausible, but the suggested results are not. Look at this as nonsense.

--JMM

I'll let you knw how good it works when I thaw out my tomato. Hey hey.