Cryoconcentration technology in the bio-food industry: Principles and applications

Cryoconcentration is a natural phenomenon which occurs during the ice thawing. More concentrated phase is then separated from the initial solution. This phenomenon was exploited for scientific objectives and the results were impressive. The use of the cryoconcentration technology in the bio-food industry makes it possible to obtain products of high nutritive, biological and organoleptic value. The aim of this review was to trace a detailed synthesis of the basic principles of this concentration and extraction technique, to summarize in one document the potential and principal applications reported in the literature and to try to predict the future and the necessary conditions for the industrial success of this technology. (c) 2008 Swiss Society of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.