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Antifreeze can unfreeze ice cream, UW scientist finds
How do you keep the ice out of ice cream? Antifreeze.
A UW-Madison scientist has discovered an edible antifreeze that can keep ice crystals from forming inside ice cream containers, a real turnoff to late night snackers who just want their fix of Rocky Road without digging through a layer of frost.
According to the UW-Madison news service, food science professor Srinivasan Damodaran mixed gelatin with papain, a natural enzyme from fruit that cuts proteins into smaller pieces. When blended into ice cream, the antifreeze works to keep ice cream smooth.
Frozen foods get crystallized because of temperature fluctuations, such as when the freezer door is opened and closed repeatedly or the freezer defrosts.
Food giant Unilever developed an antifreeze protein from fish that's used in ice cream products, but the additive is still pending approval in Europe, and consumer sentiment against genetic engineering might prevent the Unilever product from being widely accepted, the news report said.
Damodaran said a gelatin-based antifreeze is from animal collagen, the same protein used to make gelatin desserts such as Jell-O.
"A lot of people study antifreeze proteins because they have so much technological value," Damodaran said in the news release, since the gelatin-based antifreeze can be used in a wide variety of frozen food, including meat.
"So much texture is lost to ice crystal damage in meat tissues," he said.
"We used ice cream as the model to show this antifreeze works," Damodaran said. "Now it's up to the companies, manufacturers and consumers to decide if they want to have it in their products."
File photo
A UW-Madison scientist has discovered an edible antifreeze that can keep ice crystals from forming inside ice cream containers.
