The effect of magnetic and electric fields on the processes of food freezing

Abstract

The article summarizes the results of studies based on scientific publications on the effect of magnetic fields (MF) and electric fields (EF) on the kinetics of freezing processes applied onto biological tissue and on their properties. The processes of freezing food media on installations equipped with the Cells Alive System (CAS) magnetic system manufactured by ABI Co., Ltd., Japan are considered in this article. It is shown that the majority of researchers did not confirm the benefits claimed by the CAS system developers in comparison with the processes of fast freezing in the chambers without the magnetic field. In the case of using the alternating magnetic fields (AMF) with high field induction values, the effect is more pronounced. The application of strong static or alternating EF contributes to the creation of a fine-grained structure of ice, reduces the freezing duration and decreases mass loss during the food thawing.

Keywords

• food products
• cooling
• freezing
• phase transition
• magnetic fields
• electric fields
• frozen food quality