A few sharp ice crystals ruin ice cream’s silky texture, as all connoisseurs know. An edible, tasteless antifreeze may soon come to the rescue.
The non-toxic antifreeze, made from a gelatin protein, could be added to any frozen food to prevent unappetizing ice crystals from forming, without otherwise affecting the food itself.
“This has been a major problem in frozen foods,” said food scientist Srinivasan Damodaran of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who conducted the research. “Ice crystal growth can change properties of frozen food like texture. We live in Wisconsin â?? dairy country. We produce a lot of ice cream.”