Osmodehydrofreezing: An Integrated Process for Food Preservation during Frozen Storage

Unveiling the dynamic interactions of gluten-starch-water in frozen dough: An in-depth review

In recent decades, frozen dough has become an attractive means of preserving and offering the convenience of fresh-tasting foods while retaining their nutritional benefits. However, the frozen dough industry still faces significant challenges related to processing, freezing, and storage that affect the dough's quality and stability during thawing. Understanding the complex interactions between proteins (gluten, glutenin, gliadin, and glutenin macropolymers), starch dynamics (gelatinization and retrogradation), and water distribution-particularly how ice crystals interact with the gluten-starch matrix-is essential for improving frozen dough quality. This review also delves into the rheological properties resulting from the interplay of these components, emphasizing their collective impact on dough texture and stability. Additionally, it explores various freezing mechanisms and innovative strategies to reduce freeze damage, as well as practical challenges in translating theoretical insights into industrial applications. Finally, it proposes future strategies for improving the shelf life and quality of frozen dough by optimizing freezing methods and water distribution. Through a comprehensive synthesis of current literature, this review underscores the critical importance of gluten-starch-water interactions in frozen dough and highlights promising strategies for enhancing product performance and quality.

Principles of ultrasonic agglomeration and its effect on physicochemical and macro- and microstructural properties of foods

Ultrasonic compaction, also known as ultrasonic agglomeration, is an emerging technology that represents a novel alternative for food agglomeration; it is of great interest to the food industry. This review aims to gather information on the physicochemical, organoleptic, microbiological, and structural changes generated by ultrasound and study the fundamentals of agglomeration and ultrasound in different food matrices. In addition, chemical changes are reported in some nutrients related to conformational changes, such as the disintegration of diacylglycerides into monoacylglycerols, disordering of the crystalline region of starch granules to the amorphous phase, disruption of the membrane in plant cells, and transient or permanent modification of the protein structure (3D folding). The increasing development of patents can provide an insight into the potential of ultrasonic agglomeration applications in the food industry.

Combined effect of pulsed electric field and osmotic dehydration pretreatments on mass transfer and quality of air-dried pumpkin

Pulsed electric field (PEF) and osmotic dehydration (OD) pretreatment can accelerate the time-consuming drying process and minimize its high energy demands. The effect of PEF and OD pre-processing conditions and osmotic solution composition on mass transfer kinetics (water loss, solid gain, water activity) and quality properties (color, texture, total sensory quality) during OD and subsequent air-drying (AD) of pumpkin was studied. Application of PEF (2.0 kV/cm-1500 pulses) significantly enhanced mass transfer during subsequent air-drying (increased effective diffusivity coefficient D_es and drying rate k_drying , respectively). PEF and OD treatments led to a significant reduction of the processing time by 12 and 10%, respectively (p < 0.05). The maximum reduction of processing time by 27% (p < 0.05) (compared to untreated sample) resulted in combined use of PEF and OD as pretreatments prior to AD. When PEF pretreatment was combined with OD prior to AD, the corresponding energy was by 50% less than the respective energy required for nonprocessed samples. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Pulsed electric fields (PEF) and osmotic dehydration (OD) can be applied for the production of air-dried pumpkin cuts of superior quality (in terms of quality and sensory characteristics) and reduced energy requirements (as a result of total processing time decrease).

Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques combined with emerging drying methods for sustainable food production: Impact on bioactive components, texture, color, and sensory properties of food

The food industries are looking for potential preservation methods for fruits and vegetables. The combination of osmosis and drying has proved the efficient method to improve the food quality. Osmotic dehydration is a mass transfer process in which water molecules from the food move to an osmo-active solution and the solutes from the solution migrate into the food. Advanced osmotic dehydration techniques such as electric field pulse treatment, ultrasonic and microwave-assisted dehydration, pulsed vacuum, and osmodehydrofreezing can improve the nutritional quality (bioactive) and sensory properties (color, texture, aroma, flavor) of fresh and cut-fruits without changing their reliability. Emerging osmotic dehydration technologies can preserve the structure of fruit tissue by forming microscopic channels and increasing effective water diffusivity. However, it is important to analyze the effect of advanced osmotic dehydration techniques on the quality of food products to understand the industrial scalability of these techniques. The present paper discusses the impact of recent osmotic dehydration techniques on bioactive, antioxidant capacity, color, and sensory profile of food.

Novel synergistic freezing methods and technologies for enhanced food product quality: A critical review

Freezing has a long history as an effective food preservation method, but traditional freezing technologies have quality limitations, such as the potential for water loss and/or shrinkage and/or nutrient loss, etc. in the frozen products. Due to enhanced quality preservation and simpler thawing operation, synergistic technologies for freezing are emerging as the optimal methods for frozen food processing. This article comprehensively reviewed the recently developed synergistic technologies for freezing and pretreatment, for example, ultrasonication, cell alive system freezing, glass transition temperature regulation, high pressure freezing, pulsed electric field pretreatment, osmotic pretreatment, and antifreeze protein pretreatment, etc. The mechanisms and applications of these techniques are outlined briefly here. Though the application of new treatments in freezing is relatively mature, reducing the energy consumption in the application of these new technologies is a key issue for future research. It is also necessary to consider scale-up issues involved in large-scale applications as much of the research effort so far is limited to laboratory or pilot scale. For future development, intelligent freezing should be given more attention. Freezing should automatically identify and respond to different freezing conditions according to the nature of different materials to achieve more efficient freezing. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This paper provides a reference for subsequent production and research, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of different novel synergistic technologies, which points out the direction for subsequent industry development and research. At the same time, it provides new ideas for the freezing industry.