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Determination of the potato freezing time

Tatiana Paola Cristancho, Santiago Sierra.
[email protected], [email protected]
Agro-industrial production engineering program 1, 2
Unit Operations I
Presented to Maria Ximena Quintanilla
Universidad de La Sabana, Engineering Faculty
Abstract decreases. Many of the food can be stored
Freezing time plays an important role when almost indefinitely at temperatures below -30oC
talking about the quality of a product after without a noticeable loss of quality. The
having subjected a product to freezing, which is difficulties in this are the high cost of producing
why it takes importance to evaluate it, in this and maintaining these temperatures. However,
practice the freezing time was determined both time-to-temperature ratios are not valid for all
practically and theoretically, to compare the foods, particularly those that contain high
results and determine the effect that the change amounts of fat or salt. (3)
of certain variables had. The most important
factors in the variability of freezing time were Temperatures used in storage under freezing are
freezer air temperature, heat transfer coefficient, generally less than -18oC. At these temperatures
thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity. there is no possibility of any microbial growth,
Keywords: potatoes, freezing speed, thermal center,
freezing although residual microbial activity or that of
endogenous enzymes may persist and over time
I. INTRODUCTION alter the product. In the case of fruits and
Freezing is the most convincing technique for vegetables (such as potato) this activity can be
long-term food preservation as the nutrient reduced by bleaching (immersion in water to
content is mostly retained, so that the frozen approximately 80 oC), before freezing them in
product resembles fresh food. (1) order to inactivate enzymes present in fruits and
vegetables. If not inactivated, these enzymes
With this practice, it was sought to determine would determine that the product bleached
the freezing time in the thermal center of the during storage. (1)
potato in order to determine the influence of The degree of microbial death is determined by
different factors on it and therefore on the how quickly food cools. Maximum lethality is
quality of the product. observed in slow cooling. Bacteria survival is
greatest in rapid freezing. However, freezing
The freezing process consists of two sensitive treatments are intended to minimize product
heat changes (with temperature change) and a quality loss. (4)
latent heat change (no temperature change),
bring the product to its freezing point (sensitive The freezing rate affects the quality of frozen
heat change), convert the water into ice (latent products depending on the food. At low speeds
heat change) and decrease the temperature of the few crystallizations nuclei form and ice crystals
frozen food to its final storage temperature grow to relatively large sizes. This has a
(sensitive heat change). (1) disadvantage when breaking down cell walls and
presenting an aqueous exudate when defrosting
Food begins to freeze somewhere within the the product. Instead, rapid freezing seeks to keep
temperature scale between -0.5 and -3oC. (2) the product as long as possible in the area with
the highest freezing ratio. In this way, many
The duration of preservation of most frozen small crystals are formed, avoiding the
products increases as the storage temperature destruction of the structure of the food. Rapid
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freezing is the method used by the frozen food

industry. (4)

Storage temperatures above -10oC should be

avoided after rapid freezing to prevent
deterioration in product quality. Small crystals
melt faster than large ones. During this process,
such crystals will melt and form large water
lagoons. When the temperature is subsequently Figure 1: Flow chart of the procedure performed
reduced, these lagoons will form large ice during the laboratory.
crystals that can break the cellular structure.
This phenomenon is known as recrystallization
manifested by the appearance of large ice
III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
crystals that deteriorate the appearance and
texture of the food. To avoid this phenomenon,
it is important to keep frozen foods at a uniform
temperature throughout all stages of the cold
chain. In addition, chemical reactions that IV. CONCLUSIONS
deteriorate to food act more quickly in frozen
foods when temperature fluctuations increase in V. REFERENCES
both value and extent. (5,6)
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de las muestras se tomaron las temperaturas hasta que Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEPX
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