DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE BASED ON CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR RAPID FREEZING IN DOMESTIC REFRIGERATORS AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FREEZING BEHAVIOR OF MEAT AS A MODEL FOOD
Project no. 23504 · Status: Kapanmış · 2022
Summary
<p>It is crucial to preserve meat and meat products with high nutritional value in a way that maintains their properties, as they represent a significant food group in a healthy diet and are susceptible to microbiological and enzymatic deterioration. The fact that the freezing process is one of the most important application areas of food preservation methods, provides long-term preservation, and is more effective in preserving the sensory qualities and nutritional properties of food during processing compared to other preservation methods has made its use widespread in the food industry. The freezing process is an important food preservation method that turns the water in the food into ice crystals, prevents the food from deteriorating physically, chemically, and microbiologically, and ensures that the food remains durable and of high quality for a long time. In the freezing process, which consists of pre-cooling, crystallization (phase change) and final cooling stages; ice crystallization is defined as the most important stage that determines the final product quality. It is known that the freezing speed affects the distribution and size of ice crystals during the ice crystallization stage. While a high freezing speed ensures that small ice crystals are distributed evenly in the material, a low freezing speed creates large ice crystals. Since the large crystals formed significantly damage the tissue, a high freezing speed is preferred.</p><p>The aim of this study is to ensure rapid freezing by freezing processes to be carried out in the cabinet integrated into the fastest cooling area of the refrigerator's freezer compartment; in the refrigerator containing modifications made by adding a valve; and in the ultrasound-assisted freezer compartment, and to examine the effects of freezing beef nuggets and ground meat, which are sensitive to freezing effects, with different methods on the properties of thawed and cooked meats.</p>