Freeze Structuring

Background:

Freeze structuring, also called ice templating, is an emerging technique that can create aligned or porous structures in foods by guiding ice crystal growth during freezing. It offers precise control over structure and thus, texture, enabling the design of tailored food textures and properties, such as fibrous textures in plant-based meat alternatives. Despite its potential, interactions in complex multi-component food systems of proteins, polysaccharides, and fats remain largely unexplored, limiting broader adoption in the food industry.

Objectives:

• Examine how food material properties influence structural outcomes in complex food systems.
  
• Examine how freezing parameters (e.g., cooling rate, temperature gradient) affect structure formation.
• Investigate how particles rearrange at the advancing ice front and the physical principles governing freeze-induced alignment.
• Explore applications of freeze structuring for creating novel food structures with tailored textures for diverse food products.

Publications: