Ice cream that is too crunchy or too frosty might impair the enjoyment of eating it. Fortunately, researchers have discovered a way to keep ice cream smooth and creamy even after it has been frozen. To overcome the issue of ice cream, scientists believe that employing cellulose extracted from plants may work. Organ & tissue transplants might possibly benefit from this finding.
The ice that forms over time in the refrigerator causes the ice cream to become gritty at times. Tiny ice crystals are present in every ice cream. Ice cream tastes the same when the crystals are fewer than 50 micrometers in diameter. If they really are larger, however, the flavor is affected.
According to research, antifreeze proteins produced by certain fish, vegetation, & insects allow them to live at temperatures as low as -80 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not practicable to add protein to ice cream since it’s costly and difficult to create or extract, making it inefficient.
Cellulose nanocrystals extracted from plants were examined by scientists. Photosynthesis, which involves the use of co2 and water, is used to harvest cellulose nanocrystals from plants & trees. The cellulose nanocrystals were evaluated by introducing them to a simulated ice cream that had varying sugar concentrations.
A 25 percent sucrose content, equivalent to that seen in most conventional ice creams, had no effect on the ice-forming ability of cellulose nanocrystals in our experiments.
A dosage of 1 percent cellulose prevented ice crystals from becoming larger for 5 hours after it was introduced. The mixture’s ice particles could not grow bigger than 25 micrometers, and the granules in the reference product could not grow much larger. By cutting the percentage of cellulose in half to 0.5%, the ice had ceased growing after 68 hours and at 40 micrometers.
Preservation of biological tissues, cells, even organs may be possible with these products, since ice crystals may form during the freezing process.
The scientists shared their findings at the meeting of the American Chemical Society.
