Large ice crystals in ice cream will result in a coarse and icy texture, reducing consumer appeal. The development of large ice crystals is caused by a thermodynamically driven process – ice recrystallization (IR), which refers to the growth of large ice crystals at the expense of small ice crystals. Currently, food polysaccharides are used as stabilizers to control the growth of ice crystals in ice cream. However, their ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI) effects are dependent on measurement conditions. This study aimed to understand how the IRI activity of a newly identified stabilizer – cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is affected by CNCs concentration and storage temperature.<br/>In a model ice cream system – 25.0% sucrose solution, CNCs demonstrated increased IRI activity with an increasing concentration from 0.5% to 1.25% and decreased IRI activity with further increase of CNCs concentration over 1.5%. The decrease of IRI activity at higher CNCs concentrations possibly results from the depletion interaction of ice crystals induced by excess nonadsorbing CNCs or the isotropic to the liquid crystal phase transition of CNCs above a critical concentration. CNCs demonstrated good IRI activity at high temperatures: with the addition of 1.0% CNCs in a 25.0% sucrose solution, the size of ice crystals stayed almost the same when samples were stored at -4 degrees Celsius and -8 degrees Celsius for 24 hours.<br/>These results indicated that the IRI effect of CNCs is not always positively related to the stabilizer concentration. Excess CNCs may promote the growth of ice crystals. CNCs may be better ice recrystallization inhibitors at higher storage temperatures. The research findings enrich the current knowledge on the ice recrystallization inhibition behavior of CNCs under different conditions and offer new insights for controlling ice recrystallization in frozen foods.

Inhibiting ice recrystallization by cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs): Influences of CNCs concentration and storage temperature

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