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Freezing slurry ice

1. What is slurry ice?

It is a fluid type of ice that consists of fine ice like snow (sphere-shaped ice with a 0.1-mm diameter) and liquid.

What is slurry ice?

2. What is slurry ice freezing?

- It is a method for rapidly freezing food in which the food is wrapped with liquid fine ice to avoid damaging it.



- Ice has 60 times or more cold energy of liquid.
Slurry ice is a mixture of liquid and ice that has this high cold energy; thus, it has a more significant cooling capacity than normal liquid.


What is slurry ice freezing?

Freezing

Reasons for using alcohol

Reasons for using alcohol

Reasons for using alcohol

Manufacturing method of slurry ice

 Slurry ice is manufactured with a device called ice generator.
 The ice generator has a low-temperature refrigerant sent from the freezing equipment. By cooling the internally running alcohol solution from the surroundings, it generates fine ice.

Manufacturing method of slurry ice
Manufacturing method of slurry ice

3. Characteristics of alcohol slurry ice

Rapid freezing

[Comparison with the air-cooling method]
  It takes away heat more efficiently than the air. Hence, even if it freezes at a higher temperature than the air-cooling type...
   - The passing speed of the maximum ice crystallization range (temperature range where quality tends to deteriorate) becomes faster.
   - The time until the center of a tuna to reach -25°C is nearly the same.

Comparison with the air-cooling method

[Comparison with the brine immersion method]
  Since the ice having approximately 66 times the cold energy of liquid is mixed, the rise of brine temperature that occurs in the initial phase of freezing can be prevented.

Comparison with the brine immersion method

When freezing products, they sink.

When freezing products, they sink.

Ice and liquid are hard to separate.

With salt brine and calcium chloride brine, ice separate to the top quickly, while alcohol slurry ice has a significantly slow separation rate.

Ice and liquid are hard to separate.

4. Quality of products frozen with alcohol slurry ice (in the case of tuna)

Mitigation of the meat quality damage by freezing

Mitigation of the meat quality damage by freezing 1Mitigation of the meat quality damage by freezing 2

Red color retention effect after defrosting

The condition of the color after 24-hour storage at 5°C in a cut condition was as shown in the following photos, confirming the red color retention effect.

Red color retention effect after defrosting

Reduction in dripping amount

Reduction in dripping amount

Alcohol infiltration volume

Alcohol infiltration volume

(1) Examination by sensory inspection

After defrosting, the tuna was cut and inspected by 25 inspectors (our employees: male 21 and female 4) without letting them know the processing method. As a result, there were zero persons who sensed alcohol odor.

(2) Confirmation by measurement of infiltration volume

Examination by measurement of infiltration volume 1

Examination by measurement of infiltration volume 2

Miso and Udon are added with approximately 10,000-ppm alcohol; however, it can rarely be sensed with taste. The infiltration volume in alcohol freezing was 2000 ppm or lower at every section; hence, there were no issues.



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