Ice Crystal Coarsening in Ice Cream during Cooling: A Comparison of Theory and Experiment

Crystals

Graham McCartney¹  PeterD. Lee¹  Peter Schuetz²  Jingyi Mo³  Enyu Guo³  Julian Bent⁴  Gerard van Dalen⁵  RobertD. Groot⁶  Peter Rockett⁶ 

[1] Development, Olivier van Noortlaan, 3133AT Vlaardingen, The Netherlands;D, Colworth MK44 1LQ, UK;Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK;School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China;;Unilever R&;Unilever Research &

关键词: ice cream;    microstructure;    ice crystals;    tomography;    modelling;    coarsening kinetics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/cryst9060321

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Ice cream is a complex multi-phase structure and its perceived quality is closely related to the small size of ice crystals in the product. Understanding the quantitative coarsening behaviour of ice crystals will help manufacturers optimise ice cream formulations and processing. Using synchrotron X-ray tomography, we measured the time-dependent coarsening (Ostwald ripening) of ice crystals in ice cream during cooling at 0.05 °C/min. The results show ice crystal coarsening is highly temperature dependent, being rapid from ca. −6 to −12 °C but significantly slower at lower temperatures. We developed a numerical model, based on established coarsening theory, to calculate the relationship between crystal diameter, cooling rate and the weight fraction of sucrose in solution. The ice crystal diameters predicted by the model are found to agree well with the measured values if matrix diffusion is assumed to be slowed by a factor of 1.2 due to the presence of stabilizers or high molecular weight sugars in the ice cream formulation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown