1. Introduction
The most important factor that determines frozen food quality is the course of crystallization [
1]. Crystallization is a process of ice crystal formation as a consequence of atomic ordering and mostly includes hexagonal columns, plates, and dendritic crystal lattices [
2,
3]. Size, location, and morphology of the ice crystals determine the quality of frozen food, especially ice cream desserts [
3,
4,
5]. Large ice crystals have a negative impact on product textural properties. Ice crystals of sizes between 10 and 20 µm give the product its desired texture whereas ice crystals larger than 50 μm (if present in a significant quantity) cause the product to have an undesirable (coarse or grainy) texture [
1,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10].
Ice cream is a multiphase physicochemical system originating from the dispersion of individual components in different phases [
11,
12]. The structure of ice cream is formed by dispersion of air in the frozen liquid that consists of approximately two-thirds water. Therefore, ice cream is a foam, a system in which a liquid (dispersing) phase is dispersed in air (dispersed phase). In the water phase, ice cream is a real solution of sucrose, lactose, and other sugars as well as mineral salts, whose particle sizes do not exceed 1 µm [
11]. In general, an ice cream system is constituted of four phases [
13]: unfrozen matrix (a solution of different mono- and polysaccharides), air bubbles (with sizes between 20 and 150 µm), ice crystals (with sizes from 10 to 75 µm), and fat globules (between 0.4 and 4 µm). Ice formation occurs after initial freezing, accelerates within the first hours after production, and under unstable temperature conditions, during storage, ice crystals grow due to the recrystallization process [
8,
14]. Various factors, that include total solids, initial freezing temperature, unfrozen water, stabilizer type, sweetener type, and storage temperature influence the excessive crystal growth during storage [
14,
15]. When temperature fluctuates, unfrozen water diffuses to the surface of existing crystals and enhances their growth (
Figure 1).
The recrystallization process occurs at a constant temperature during long storage, especially above the glass transition temperature [
16,
17,
18]. Heat and mass transfer cause some crystals to melt and others to grow [
19]. During storage, this ice crystal growth occurs mostly because of two mechanisms, coalescence and migration. Coalescence is the process of gathering two or more adjacent ice crystals that form a kind of bridge between them until a single and much larger ice crystal arises. Migration (Ostwald ripening) consists of two stages: melting of smaller crystals, and movement of melted liquid to the surface of crystals with larger diameters. Water molecules at the surface of small crystals are not firmly bound because of the high curvature. These “free” water molecules tend to diffuse through the freeze-concentrated matrix and are deposited on the surface of the crystals with a larger diameter. The water molecule diffusion process occurs because of the differences in vapor pressure (the vapor pressure is inversely proportional to the ice crystal radius). Usually, these two mechanisms of recrystallization occur simultaneously. Some researchers have claimed that the rate of crystal growth may be dependent on the viscosity of the unfrozen phase [
6,
8,
11,
14,
20]. However, the influence of selected stabilizers on the recrystallization rate in frozen food systems has been investigated most intensively [
1,
8,
21,
22,
23].
Hydrocolloid stabilizers are used in food production to modify water-binding capacity, freezing rates, ice crystal formation, and rheological properties [
7,
8,
11,
12,
24]. Many studies have suggested that some aspects of stabilizer functionality with respect to recrystallization protection may depend on the structure, as measured by rheological properties, which results from the freeze-concentration of the polysaccharide in the unfrozen phase of ice cream. This structure from the stabilizers would affect the rate at which water diffuses to the surface of a growing ice crystal. The stabilizers could also lead to the formation of small curvatures with different radii during ice crystal growth. These newly formed curvatures appear on the surfaces of both smaller and larger ice crystals and prevent differences in vapor pressure between them [
1,
8,
11,
21,
22,
23]. Polysaccharide stabilizers such as guar gum, locust bean gum (LBG), carboxyl methylcellulose, alginate, and xanthan gum are used commonly to control crystal lattice creation.
Different forms of carrageenan are commonly used as stabilizers. The kappa carrageenan form is mostly used to stabilize dairy products, but it may also be applied to control crystal growth in sorbet production [
1,
25]. The iota fraction of carrageenan reacts electrostatically with milk proteins to form a three-dimensional network that resists separation of the suspended phase in ice cream mixes [
11,
26]. Gaukel et al. (2014) [
8] investigated the impact of a special protein called antifreeze protein (AFP) on the ice recrystallization inhibition process. Due to the fact that recrystallization is a significant problem in frozen food, recrystallization and its inhibition have both been widely studied. Moreover, currently there is interest in the possibilities of applying different methods to describe and control this process during storage as well. Most of the studies related to the measurement of the recrystallization rate consist of determining the ice crystal size distribution and the ice crystal size using microscopy. It is the best known, although not the only method, to describe the recrystallization phenomenon.
The aim of this review was to outline the basic characteristics of the measurement method, sample preparation, and equipment required to show and describe ice crystals during and after the recrystallization process using the following methods: FBRM, OTR, NMR, splat cooling, microscopy analysis, and X-ray microtomography.
3. Conclusions
The technique of microscopy and image analysis allows one to describe ice crystal microstructure. From the images of the ice crystals we can easily obtain information about the size and the changes of their shapes and location during storage at different temperature and time conditions. The images can be easily analyzed using specific computer software. The main disadvantages of this method are difficulties in the preparation of samples and its influence on the repeatability of results. The technique of X-ray microtomography seems to offer a new possibility in the analysis of the recrystallization process as a non-destructive method that shows ice cream samples in 3D, but has some difficulties with the final interpretation of images. The FBRM (focused beam reflectance) technique is fully automated and provides results more easily and faster than simple image microscopy and image analysis. It is a suitable method for in situ measurements, and it allows sample preparation to be avoided because the measurement is conducted by the probe immersed in the ice cream mixture. However, it can only provide information about changes in the diameters of crystals, without shape and location analysis. The OTR (oscillatory thermo-rheometry) technique is a method in which viscoelastic properties of ice cream closely correlate with the sensory quality, and hence it provides information about the shelf-life of ice cream without recrystallization changes. However, the changes in size or shapes and location of ice crystals are not measured. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an effective method to evaluate the amount of unfrozen water in a food sample. Hence, it is a valuable tool for understanding the impact of a stabilizer on the recrystallization processes without providing any information about sizes of ice crystals and locations. Splat-cooling assay is the oldest method to describe the amount, sizes, and morphology of ice crystals. It is a method with a very specific technology for sample preparation and is not suitable for different types of frozen food.
All of the discussed methods are suitable for describing the recrystallization processes, although they provide different types of information, and they should be matched individually to the characteristics of the tested product.