The importance of supercooled stability for food during supercooling preservation: a review of mechanisms, influencing factors, and control methods

AbstractSupercooling can preserve food in its original fresh state below its ice point temperature without freezing. However, the supercooled state is unstable in thermodynamics, state breakdown can occur at any moment, resulting in irregular and larger ice crystals formation, leading to food tissue damage, and loss of quality and nutrients. While the effectiveness of supercooling preservation has been verified in the lab and pilot scale tests, the stability of the supercooled state of food remains an open question, posing a limitation for larger industrial-scale application of supercooling preservation. Based on this background, this review presents the instability mechanisms of supercooling preservation and summarizes the factors such as food properties (e.g., material size, food components, specific surface area, and surface roughness) and preservation circumstances (e.g., cooling rate, temperature variation, and mechanical disturbance) that influence the stability of the supercooled state of food. The review also discusses novel techniques for enhancing the supercooling capacity and their limitations (e.g., precise temperature control and magnetic field). Further studies are necessary to comprehensively evaluate the effects of influence factors and supercooling technologies on supercooling, realizing the true sense of ‘no-crystal’ food products under subzero temperature preservation conditions in commercial applications.HIGHLIGHTSSupercooling can maximize the potential of low temperature in food preservation.Supercooled state of food is unstable, with many factors affecting its stability.The quality of foodstuffs with supercooled failure is unacceptable.Instability of supercooling limits its large application in food industry.Novel technologies are developed to enhance the state stability of food supercooling.Keywords: Food preservationice crystallization control technologyquality attributessupercooling stability Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (32172150) and the Xinjiang Innovative Industry Cluster Cultivation and Development Project (2022L00100).Notes on contributorsHengxun LinHengxun Lin: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Ying Xu: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Wenqiang Guan: Writing - review & Editing, Project administration. Xia Li: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration. Songsong Zhao: Writing - Review & Editing. Chunhui Zhang: Writing - Review & Editing, Christophe Blecker: Writing - Review & Editing. Jiqian Liu: Writing - Review & Editing.Ying XuHengxun Lin: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Ying Xu: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Wenqiang Guan: Writing - review & Editing, Project administration. Xia Li: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration. Songsong Zhao: Writing - Review & Editing. Chunhui Zhang: Writing - Review & Editing, Christophe Blecker: Writing - Review & Editing. Jiqian Liu: Writing - Review & Editing.Xia LiHengxun Lin: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Ying Xu: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Wenqiang Guan: Writing - review & Editing, Project administration. Xia Li: Writing - original draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration. Songsong Zhao: Writing - Review & Editing. Chunhui Zhang: Writing - Review & Editing, Christophe Blecker: Writing - Review & Editing. Jiqian Liu: Writing - Review & Editing.