Introduction
The methods used in food preservation have greatly evolved since such basics as salting, pickling and drying. These methods although assist in preserving food on the shelves for some extent reduce safety, quality, taste and nutrient value of food. However, new trends are making it even possible to freeze food and enhance the shelf-life for several months without a compromise to its quality.
Types of Freezing, Temperature and duration of freezing
Freezing food is the best method of suspending decay for a longer number of days than any other preservation method. When food is frozen, the water inside and outside the food’s cells will change to become ice which hinders the growth of bacteria and mold. Yet, large ice-crystals can burst cell structures that means food and beverage defer from their original taste, texture, and nutritional value once they are thawed.
Cryogenic freezing and Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) freeze food very quickly that minute ice crystals are formed. This minimizes cell damage, slows down other chemical reactions and maintains the quality of the food item longer. IQF can make food to last for half a year to one year and cryogenic freezing keeps the food fresh up to a year and two months.
Optimizing the Cold Chain
Freezing is as important as preserving and maintaining the correct temperatures throughout the cold chain, pre-processing, storage, transportation, and at the display counter. But nevertheless, even minor variations or any intervals become a potential miss in preservation before the expiration date.
Modern transported cold rooms, refrigerated transport vehicles and digital tracking systems are enabling transport of frozen food safely at optimal sub- zero temperatures for long distances, hills and climatic regions. Thus temperature control warehouses with blast freezing cells are utilized to lower the temperature to carry out efficient large scale processing.
Freezer unit/freezer room design improvements are reflected in doors and seals that minimize additional intake of external air and ceiling/floor variations in cold rooms. Temperature control devices take and relay temperature readings and eliminate human interference and the time it takes to detect any faults in the system before the product begins to thaw.
Tomorrow Packaging
There is packaging of specific products to help in the protection of the product shelf life through avoiding formation of ice crystals or freezer burnage on foods. Vacuum skin packaging retains air and replaces it with inert gases or a fine mist to minimize the instance of oxidation and freezer burn; The modified atmospheric packaging is also employed with similar features. Anti-fog films avoid the formation of ice crystals that compromise the texture when reheating the packaged food.
Other smart applications that exist in this packaging include; time temperature indicators, freshness and leakage indicators also play role in tracking the cold chain. RFID tags and sensors record temperatures23 for an ongoing monitoring of product tracking throughout the supply chain in real-time.
Optimization of Food Quality and safety
MAS before stunning employs carbon dioxide to reduce stress, while CO2 tailored at 5-15% hinders bacterial development in meats. Pre-slaughter low temperature stunning followed by individual quick freezing and then low temperature storage, or carbon dioxide freezing without long exposure to chill temperate is better in retaining the taste, texture and nutrients of meat and fish compared to conventional preservation.
High pressure processing inactivates the pathogen through water pressure without the need to thaw or cook the perishable food items. This does away with the need for chemical addendad nad therefore enhanced food security. There is also less microbial growth and food safety concerns due to close monitoring and controlling of time and temperature during processing, transport and storage periods.
Innovations for the little man
Cooking advances in microwave vents as well as user interfaces give more control in defrost and cooking to prevent deterioration of quality from frozen state convenience foods.
Today innovative packaging with ready-to-cook/freeze fruits, soups, meals, snacks, and deserts in re-seal able pouches, bags, tubes, trays, and/or bowls provide significantly better convenience and portability without a trade-off on nutrition.
Packaging is also transparent and makes consumers easily judge quality when purchasing while zipper-lock, handles, and venting features allow easy usage.
The Future of Frozen
New wave freezing and refrigeration technology is enabling frozen foods to be transitioned from a consolation choice to a best practice for preserving food quality at its best for as long as needed later.
Instead of an adjunct to future food processing, freezing can be developed as a normal step in food processing which means that better quality produce can be preserved for longer periods without the additives. Clean labels, or more simply prepared food, also mean nutrient-retaining batch freezing methods create more healthy convenience foods for the growing legion of health-conscious consumers.
Cold chain surveillance as well as increasing use of technology in supply chain will also help enhance inventory control, sustainability and food quality in the future. There is a growing indication that the freezing procedure may actually turn out to be the standard method of preservation as technology advances further.