Anti-freeze Fish Phenomenon Fuels First in Frozen Food

One of the latest bits of applied scientific knowledge arising from Antarctic research has nothing to do with the welfare of ice caps. Nor with the ozone hole.

Instead, what has been learned about the singular biochemistry of the remarkable creatures capable of thriving in seawater, whose temperature dips below the freezing point of fresh water, is actually being applied to cutting edge frozen dessert technology.

The blood of several species of fish living in Antarctic waters has been found to contain a special protein that prevents it from freezing. Comparable proteins have subsequently been discovered in a range of plant, animal and even single-cellular life forms who have adapted to life in harsh climes.

As reported by the BBC, recent investigations into this protein have uncovered ways to synthesize it, and to use it not to prevent the formation of ice crystals, but to direct their formation in elongated, needle-like patterns of crystal growth.

From his Unilever ice cream research facility in England, Dr. Jim Crilly maintains that the innovation results in an ice cream product that is less prone to rapid melting and offers a better bond between flavor agents and the actual ice crystals.

Photo courtesy of Henry Li, via Wikimedia Commons