Improving the creaminess of ice-creamJuly 30, 2003A research team from CEIT and university staff from TECNUN (Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de la Universidad de Navarra, Basque Country), are investigating the optimum conditions for the crystallisation of ice at the time of its manufacture, with the aim of obtaining ice creams that have a better texture on contact with the palate. This research, within the remit of the agreement signed by CEIT and the multinational Unilever, will enable scientists at CEIT and TECNUN to analyse the behaviour of small ice particles (in the order of a tenth of a millimetre each) when subjected to extreme temperature conditions. The objective is to find the optimum temperature at which these ice crystals, in industrial processes, do not increase in size or stick to each other, so as to avoid the ice particles that make up ice-cream from having excessive dimensions which spoil the taste of the food product. The problem lies in the fact that ice cream may be stored for several months, in which time these tiny crystals grow and may join up and form a block, may break and the ice cream may lose its consistency. In fact the eat-by date for ice cream is not based on it going off or it becomes unfit for consumption, but because of the growth in these small crystals which can change the consistency of the product and there is no guarantee that the ice cream stays creamy. The project will last for three years and will involve work by scientists at Unilever in England, in the installations of which researchers from CEIT will carry out the experimental part of the study. The project, undertaken by the Department of Materials at CEIT, is an extension of another, recently concluded one, which has resulted in the publication of a PhD thesis by the materials engineer, Javier Aldazabal. This study has managed to reproduce, with the aid of a computer, the evolution of the structure of ice cream at various pressures, temperatures and storage times. That is, of the 40 million particles in each cubic centimetre of ice cream - a lot to investigate. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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