Freeze-drying

Makes the perishable eternal

Lyophilization is a process of dehydration of the food or biological product by freezing and subsequent sublimation, at reduced pressure, of the ice formed.

 

Freeze-drying is a non-denaturing process that preserves about 95% of the nutritional value of foods.

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What is freeze-drying
Freeze-drying is a process by which water is removed from a food by sublimation.

This takes place when the ice passes directly to the vapor state without passing through the liquid state.

To achieve this phenomenon, the product must be frozen, converting all its water into ice. From this point, the temperature is gradually raised at the same time as the food is subjected to vacuum.
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What is freeze-drying
As the ice disappears by sublimation, the product dehydrates, retaining the same characteristics it had initially: shape and properties.
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What is freeze-drying
Finally, in secondary drying, when the moisture percentage is already low, the temperature is raised and maintained for a period of time to achieve complete desorption.
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Advantages

  • Preservation of food or biological products without the addition of additives or preservatives.
  • Non-denaturing process: freeze-dried products retain almost all their physicochemical and nutritional parameters (color, texture, flavor or aroma, among others).
  • Significant reduction of product mass, facilitating and reducing handling and transportation costs.
  • Possibility to process the product in powder form, even in foods that are pressed or compacted, achieving a very high concentration of volatile compounds.
  • Less moisture compared to a dehydrated product: freeze-dried products lose up to 99% moisture.
  • Preservation of the product in its original volume: in conventional drying, the product shrinks, damaging cells; with freeze-drying, the integrity of the product's biological and chemical structure and activities is preserved.
  • Freeze-drying quality: Freeze-drying results in higher quality food products than any drying method. The main factor is the structural rigidity that is retained in the frozen substance when sublimation takes place. This prevents the collapse of the porous structure after drying. 
  • Possibility of recovering the original form: by adding water afterwards, the rehydrated product retains most of its original structure.

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Freeze-drying of food

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