Measurement of cooling and warming rates in vitrification-based plant cryopreservation protocols.

Cryopreservation protocols include the use of additives and pretreatments aimed to reduce the probability of ice nucleation at all temperatures, mainly through micro-viscosity increase. Still, there is a risk of ice formation in the temperature region comprised between the equilibrium freezing (Tf ) and the glass transition (TG ) temperatures. Consequently, fast cooling and warming, especially in this region, is a must to avoid ice-derived damage.

Glassy state and cryopreservation of mint shoot tips.

Vitrification refers to the physical process by which a liquid supercools to very low temperatures and finally solidifies into a metastable glass, without undergoing crystallization at a practical cooling rate. Thus, vitrification is an effective freeze-avoidance mechanism and living tissue cryopreservation is, in most cases, relying on it. As a glass is exceedingly viscous and stops all chemical reactions that require molecular diffusion, its formation leads to metabolic inactivity and stability over time.

Conventional freezing plus high pressure-low temperature treatment: Physical properties, microbial quality and storage stability of beef meat.

Meat high-hydrostatic pressure treatment causes severe decolouration, preventing its commercialisation due to consumer rejection. Novel procedures involving product freezing plus low-temperature pressure processing are here investigated. Room temperature (20°C) pressurisation (650MPa/10min) and air blast freezing (-30°C) are compared to air blast freezing plus high pressure at subzero temperature (-35°C) in terms of drip loss, expressible moisture, shear force, colour, microbial quality and storage stability of fresh and salt-added beef samples (Longissimus dorsi muscle).

Liquid water-ice I phase diagrams under high pressure: sodium chloride and sucrose models for food systems.

The knowledge of high pressure and low temperature phase diagrams of aqueous systems is required in fields such as food sciences, biology, cryo-microscopy and geology, to reduce processing costs, improve treatments results or advance in physical phenomena understanding. The phase transition curve between liquid water and ice I for sucrose and sodium chloride solutions has been obtained for concentrations ranging from 16% to 36% and from 1.63% to 16.

Ice VI freezing of meat: supercooling and ultrastructural studies.

While "classical" freezing (to ice I) is disruptive to the microstructure of meat, freezing to ice VI has been found to preserve it. Ice VI freeze-substitution microscopy showed no traces of structural alteration on muscle fibres compared with the extensive damage caused by ice I freezing. The different signs of the freezing volume changes associated with these two ice phases is the most likely explanation for the above effects.

High CO2 atmosphere modulating the phenolic response associated with cell adhesion and hardening of Annona cherimola fruit stored at chilling temperature.

Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL, EC 4.3.1.

Some interrelated thermophysical properties of liquid water and ice. I. A user-friendly modeling review for food high-pressure processing.

A bibliographic search yielded a set of empirical equations that constitute an easy method for the calculation of some thermophysical properties of both liquid water and ice I, properties that are involved in the modeling of thermal processes in the high-pressure domain, as required in the design of new high-pressure food processes. These properties, closely interrelated in their physical derivation and experimental measurement, are specific volume, specific isobaric heat capacity, thermal expansion coefficient, and isothermal compressibility coefficient. Where no single equation was found, an alternative method for calculation is proposed.

A model for real thermal control in high-pressure treatment of foods.

A model for the simulation of thermal exchanges in a complete high-pressure equipment was developed. Good agreement between simulated and experimental time-temperature profiles was found during different processes of pressurization and depressurization. The model allows study of the effect of different variables to improve thermal control in the treatments performed.