• Lille, Martina
• Arabas, J.
• Urrutia, G.
• Ousegui, A.
• Kakolewski, A.
• Shen, T.
• Hendrickx, M.
• Sanz, P. D.
• Brul, S.
• Buggenhout, S. Van
• Molina-García, A. D.
• Autio, Karin
• Knorr, D.
• Bail, A. Le

Abstract

The SAFE ICE project, supported by the European Commission, addressesand overcomes specific scientific and technological hurdles to make aninformed judgment on the relevance of food related effects of High-Pressure inthe Low-Temperature (HPLT) domain as well as to realize and to deliver theirfull benefits to the end users. Such hurdles include the lack of systematicdata, and a limited understanding related to the mechanisms involved in phasetransitions under pressure at subzero temperatures. The project involves sevenpartners, bringing together academic and research centres with food industryand equipment manufacturing parties. The main findings of the research carriedout in the frame of the project are: the systematic compilation ofthermophysical properties of water, aqueous model solutions and model foods tobe applied in mathematical models able to reproduce and predict freezing andthawing time profiles at high pressure; the comprehension of the kinetics ofphase transition phenomena at HP, including the definition of metastablephases; a key to define critical processing parameters to obtain optimizedfreezing and thawing paths; the study of the effect of HPLT on key foodspoilage enzymes and on microorganisms; the study of consumer acceptance ofthe technology; the evaluation of the impact of SAFE ICE processes on foodquality related parameters and the development of prototypes (HPLT microscopiccell and HPLT differential thermal analysis cell) and process and productsconcepts for industrial development of SAFE ICE processes.

Topics

• differential thermal analysis