MODELING ICE CRYSTAL COARSENING IN CONCENTRATED DISPERSE FOOD SYSTEMS

Recrystallization of ice in frozen concentrated aqueous sugar solution s was treated as a diffusion controlled process and has been modeled u sing a combination of a modified Lifshitz, Slyozov and Wagner theory f or coarsening in dispersed phase systems and a mean field theory. The model has been tested using aqueous fructose solutions, water ices and ice creams under a range of time and temperature histories. The model provides data which are in accord with experiments and also suggests that recrystallization cannot be modeled using only diffusion. In cert ain circumstances other processes must also be considered.