Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

Review

Innovative applications of power

ultrasound during
food freezing
processesa review
Liyun Zheng and Da-Wen Sun*

&

FRCFT Research Group, Department of

Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin,
National University of Ireland, Earlsfort Terrace,
Dublin 2, Ireland (Tel.: C353 1 7165528; fax: C353
1 4752119/7167493; e-mail: dawen.sun@ucd.ie)
Although the application of power ultrasound to food
freezing is a relatively new subject, recent research
advances show its potential is promising. The beneficial
use of the sound energy is realised through the various effects
that ultrasound generates upon the medium where it
transmits. Among them, cavitation is perhaps the most
significant one, which can not only lead to the production of
gas bubbles but also the occurrence of microstreaming. The
former can promote ice nucleation while the latter is able to
accelerate the heat and mass transfer process accompanying
the freezing process. Similar to other dense and incompressible materials, ice crystals will fracture when subjecting to
alternating acoustic stress, consequently leading to products
of smaller crystal size distribution, which is indeed one of
the most important aspects that many freezing processes
target at.
Resulting from these acoustic effects, the application of
power ultrasound is beneficial to many food-freezing
processes. If ultrasound is applied to the process of freeze
preservation of fresh foodstuffs, it can shorten the freezing
process, and lead to product of better quality. If it is applied
to freeze concentration and freeze drying processes, it can
be used to control crystal size distribution in the frozen
product. Furthermore, power ultrasound can also bring
* Corresponding author.
0924-2244/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2005.08.010

several benefits to the process of partial freezing of ice cream

inside a scraped surface freezer, e.g. reducing crystal size,
preventing incrustation on freezing surface, etc. Therefore,
ultrasonic freezing process could have promising applications in freezing of high value food (ingredients) and
pharmaceutical products.
However, for the future development of this technology,
several problems still remain to be explored. More
fundamental research is still needed in order to identify
factors that affect the ability of power ultrasound in
performing the above functions. Considerable research effort
is also required with regards to the development of adequate
industrial equipment.

Introduction
Ultrasonic is a rapidly growing field of research and
development for the food industry, which can mainly be
classified into two fields: high frequency low energy
diagnostic ultrasound in the MHz range, and low frequency
high-energy power ultrasound. The former is usually used as
an analytical technique for quality assurance, process
control and non-destructive inspection, which has been
applied to determine food properties, to measure flow rate,
to inspect food packages, etc. (Floros & Liang, 1994;
McClements, 1995; Mason, Paniwnyk, & Lorimer, 1996;
Mason, 1998). However, the application of the latter in the
food industry is relatively new and has not yet been
profoundly explored until recent years. Various areas have
been identified with great potential for future development,
e.g. crystallisation, drying, degassing, extraction, filtration,
homogenisation, meat tenderization, oxidation, sterilization, etc. (Floros & Liang, 1994; Gennaro et al., 1999;
Mason, 1998; Mason et al., 1996; McClements, 1995).
This paper will mainly review the application of power
ultrasound in assisting food freezing. Although ultrasound
has not yet been sufficiently exploited in such an area, its
potential is promising. The acoustic mechanisms in the
freezing process will be first analysed. The possible
applications in different areas of freezing will then be
discussed. This review will also identify factors that affect
the efficiency of power ultrasound. Finally, some recommendations will also be given with regards to design of
proper ultrasonic devices that can be used in conjunction
with existing freezing equipment.

Acoustic pressure

L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

17

Time
_

Creation

Bubble grows under

negative pressure

Bubble contracts under

positive pressure

Fig. 1. Motions of bubbles during cavitation

provides has been used to enhance heat and mass transfer

in many processes (Ensminger, 1988; McClement, 1995;
Simal, Benekito, Sanchez, & Rossello, 1998; Tarleton &
Wakeman, 1998). Due to its ability to provide violent
agitation in the liquid phase, microstreaming can therefore
also benefit the freezing process by reducing both the heat
and mass transfer resistance at the ice/liquid interface and
thus increasing freezing rate (Li & Sun, 2002; Zheng & Sun,
2005).
Ice crystal is another major component of the food
freezing system. Similar to other dense and practically
incompressible materials, ice crystals will fracture when
they are subjected to sound waves (Zheng & Sun, 2005).
This effect has been demonstrated by Acton and Morris
(1992), who observed that when a pulse of ultrasound of
approximately 3 s was applied to a freezing sucrose solution
every 30 s for a duration of 10 min, the front of the dendritic
ice formed on the cold surface was clearly seen to fracture
and the ice fragments were dispersed into the unfrozen bulk
liquid. Fragmentation of ice crystals leads to crystal size
reduction. As shown in Fig. 2, it was found that inside a
frozen sucrose solution treated with power ultrasound
during freezing, 32% of the water exists as crystals with
diameter of 50 mm or larger, compared to 77% for the one
without acoustic treatment (Acton & Morris, 1992). The
effect of power ultrasound on fragmenting crystals has
0.14
With ultrasound
Without ultrasound

0.12
Fractional volume

Acoustic mechanisms on the freezing process

One of the basic components of freezing a food system
can always be simply pictured as ice crystals distributed
across the unfrozen aqueous phase. The transmitting of the
sound waves across the aqueous phase can cause the
occurrence of cavitation (Fig. 1) if its amplitude exceeds
certain level (Zheng & Sun, 2005). The negative pressure
during the rarefaction will cause liquid to fracture, leading
to the formation of bubbles or cavities (Ashokkuman &
Grieser, 1999; Gong & Hart, 1998). During the negative
pressure portion of the sound wave, bubbles (including
bubbles that are inherently present in the liquid) will grow
rapidly and create a vacuum, causing gases dissolved in the
liquid to diffuse into them. As the rarefaction portion of the
sound wave passes, the negative pressure is reduced and
when atmospheric pressure is reached, the bubbles will start
to shrink under surface tension. When the compression
cycle starts and while the positive pressure lasts, gas that
diffused into the bubbles will be expelled into the fluid. The
diffusion of gas out of the bubbles will not take place until
after the bubbles are compressed. However, once the bubble
is compressed, its boundary surface area available for
diffusion is decreased, therefore, the amount of gas that is
expelled is less than the amount that is taken up during the
rarefaction cycle. Consequently, these bubbles will grow
bigger over each ultrasound cycle.
These cavitation bubbles can serve as nuclei for ice
nucleation once reaching the critical nucleus size (Mason
et al., 1996). Experiments have shown that power
ultrasound can significantly increase the nucleus number
in a concentrated sucrose solution (Suslick, 1988).
Microstreaming is another significant acoustic phenomenon
associated with cavitation, which occurs when the oscillating bubbles produce a vigorous circulatory motion, and thus
setting up strong eddy currents in the fluid surrounding them
(Scheba et al., 1991). The diffusion of gases into and out of
the bubbles can also create microcurrents around themselves and further spread into the liquid (Hughes & Nyborg,
1962). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation
revealed that an average acoustic velocity of 3 mm/s could
be obtained with 500 kHz ultrasound (Laborde et al., 2000).
The turbulence (violent agitation) that microstreaming

0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
20

35

50
65
80
95 110 125 140
Average diameter (micron meters)

155 170

Fig. 2. Influence of power ultrasound on the crystal size distribution

inside a frozen sucrose solution (Acton & Morris, 1992)

L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

18

already been successfully used in the production of a

crystalline drug (Mason et al., 1996).
Applications
Traditionally, power ultrasound has been applied to
accelerating the ice nucleation of many chemical processes
(Fennema, 1973). Compared to other methods, for instance,
the usage of chemicals such as silver iodide, amino acids,
ice nucleating bacteria, or seed crystals, power ultrasound
offers several advantages. It is a very efficient treatment,
since one or two pulses of ultrasound can fulfil the
requirement. Also, the initial nucleation temperature of
the liquid can be dictated. Unlike nucleating agents, it does
not require direct contact with the products. Furthermore, it
is not chemically invasive and thus unlikely to encounter
legislative difficulties (Acton & Morris, 1992). Therefore,
power ultrasound has been recently studied in assisting and/
or accelerating various freezing processes. These applications could be extended to freezing of high value food
(ingredients) and pharmaceutical products.

Li, 2003). Cryogenic scanning electron microscope photos

indicate that plant tissues of ultrasound-assisted frozen
potatoes exhibit a better cellular structure as less extracellular void and cell disruption/breakage appear than those
without acoustic treatment (Sun & Li, 2003) (Fig. 4). This
might be attributable to the fast freezing induced by power
ultrasound (Li & Sun, 2002), since fast freezing has been
widely accepted as the most effective method for improving
frozen food quality (Arthey, 1993; Grout et al. Powrie,
1973). This might also be due to that cavitation bubbles
could have induced the occurrence of intracellular nucleation, which usually is not able to occur due to insufficient
degree of supercooling, although cavitation bubbles can
help to reduce crystal size, minimise cell dehydration and
maintain product original shape (Powrie, 1973). Cavitation
bubbles might also increase the nucleation rate in the
extracellular region, which is also favourable for smaller

Freeze preservation of fresh foodstuffs

Laboratory investigation indicates that power ultrasound
is able to accelerate the freezing process of fresh food
products, mainly through its ability in enhancing the heat
and mass transfer process (Li & Sun, 2002). During
immersion freezing of potatoes slices, Li and Sun (2002)
applied power ultrasound intermittently when potatoes
temperature was reduced from 0 to K7 8C. The purpose
of the intermittent treatment is to avoid the rise of
refrigerant temperature, since continuous application of
power ultrasound can lead to prolonged thermal effect upon
the refrigerant. Their results (Li & Sun, 2002) indicate that
power ultrasound can lead to noticeable increase of freezing
rate. As an example, the freezing curves for potato samples
treated with an acoustic power level of 15.85 W and without
acoustic treatment are compared in Fig. 3. Mason et al.
(1996) also stated that application of power ultrasound
during food freezing could increase freezing efficiency.
Apart from the above, power ultrasound is also found to
be able to improve the quality of the frozen product (Sun &

Temperature (C)

5
Without ultrasound
With ultrasound

0
5
10
15
20
0

10
Time (min)

15

20

Fig. 3. Influence of power ultrasound on the freezing rate during

immersion freezing of potato slices (Li & Sun, 2002).

Fig. 4. Cryo-SEM micrograph for potato tissue by immersion freezing

showing disruption of cells and separation of cells (a), as compared
with Cryo-SEM micrograph for potato tissue by ultrasonically
assisted immersion freezing under power of 15.85 W showing
much better preserved microstructure (b) (Sun & Li, 2003).

L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

crystal size distribution. Crystal fragmentation caused by

sonication is another possible reason, which can reduce
crystal size. Since small crystals execute less mechanical
stress upon the cell membranes, consequently, less cell
deformation and breakage occur.
Ice cream manufacture
Freezing of ice cream takes place in two steps, the initial
freezing of the ice cream pre-mix inside a scraped surface
freezer and subsequent hardening of the semi-solid product
inside a cold room. One of the main objectives of ice cream
manufacture is to obtain a product with the smallest crystal
size distribution as possible, since otherwise product will be
gritty (Russell et al., 1998). Application of power ultrasound
to partial freezing of ice cream inside the scraped surface
freezer can bring several benefits. The most significant one
is perhaps crystal fragmentation. Preventing incrustation on
the cold surface is another possible benefit. During ice
cream processing, ice usually forms initially on the inner
wall surface of the freezer barrels, which is also the heat
exchanger surface. Since ice has a thermal conductivity that
is much smaller than metal, it is thus necessary to install
mechanical scrapers to remove the formed crystals in order
to obtain high heat transfer rate. With the application of
power ultrasound, the cleaning action of cavitation might
effectively prevent the encrustation of crystals on the cold
surface and thus to maintain a high heat transfer rate
(Mason, 1998), which might eventually remove the
requirement of mechanical scrapers. This can not only
simplify freezer design but also avoid the undesirable
thermal effect due to the friction between scrapers and the
scraped surface.
However, since commercial ice cream contains up to
50% by volume of entrapped air while power ultrasound is
known as a commercial method for degassing in some food
manufacturing processes such as canning lines (Mason,
1998), application of acoustic energy therefore is likely to
result in undesirable modification of the ice cream texture.
To overcome this, Acton and Morris (1992) proposed to
increase the initial gas content so that the proportion of air
lost due to the ultrasound irradiation can be compensated, or
to carry out the process under increased pressure, or to
incorporate air into the partially frozen product rather than
at the initial stage of the freezing process.
Freeze concentration and freeze drying
Freeze concentration of liquid foods involves the
fractional crystallisation of water and subsequent removal
of the ice (Fellows, 2000). Usually, large crystal size
distribution is preferred, since it can facilitate the separation
of the ice crystals from the freeze concentrate (Schwartzberg, 1990). Freeze drying is a process among which the
product is frozen, and then water is removed from the frozen
sample by sublimation. Similar to the freeze concentration
process, large crystals are also preferred in order to obtain a
faster sublimation process (Fellows, 2000).

19

Due to its ability in initiating ice nucleation at a

controlled temperature, power ultrasound can be an
effective method to control crystal size distribution in the
final product. The formation of ice crystals during freezing
consists of two phases: ice nucleation and ice crystal
growth, both of which are dependent on the degree of
supercooling of the system, but at different relationships. At
higher degree of supercooling, nucleation is more dominant,
while lower degree of supercooling favours crystal growth.
Therefore, if power ultrasound is applied when the system is
at low degree of supercooling, only a few nuclei will form
which thus will be able to grow extensively. On the other
hand, application of acoustic energy at higher degree of
supercooling will cause the formation of a large number of
nuclei, which however can only grow to a limited size with
its maximum value being limited by the freezing system,
since the total amount of ice formed is determined by the
total amount of water available for freezing and the total
amount of heat removed.
The above principles have been successfully applied by
Acton and Morris (1992) to the freeze drying process. Acton
and Morris (1992) found that by irradiating sucrose solution
to ultrasound for up to 5 s at 1 8C of supercooling, only a
few large crystals were formed. In contrast, when ultrasound
was applied at 5 8C of supercooling, nucleation was
widespread and the formed crystals were smaller. After
freeze-drying, the former sample was found to have large
pores, while the pores inside the latter were much smaller. It
is important to note that if large crystal is desired, ultrasound
should be applied within very short period, preferably
several seconds, as continuous application of ultrasound
would lead to fragmentation of crystals.
Manufacture of moulded frozen products
Power ultrasound can also benefit the manufacture of
moulded frozen products, such as sorbets, ice lollipops, etc.
due to that sonication can reduce crystal size. Experimental
investigation showed that during the production of ice
lollipops, the application of power ultrasound resulted in
product that had much smaller ice crystals and uniform
crystal size distribution (Gareth, 1992). Although the small
crystals made the product difficult to bite, it strongly
improved the adhesion of the lollipop to the supporting
wooden stick (Gareth, 1992).
Factors affecting acoustic efficiency
Factors that affect the efficiency of power ultrasound can
be classified into two categories: product factors and sound
factors. Product factors involve parameters such as product
structure, moisture content and moisture distribution, liquid
temperature and viscosity, initial gas content and bubble
size, etc. Sound factors include power and duration of
ultrasound, ultrasound frequency, ultrasonic mode, etc.
These two types of factors are also interrelated.
Some general recommendations can be made on some of
the sound factors for certain purpose. For instance, if power

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L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

ultrasound is used to initiate nucleation in a fluid, it is

suggested that the power should be greater than 2 W/L of
liquid and the preferred frequency be 2040 kHz, furthermore, the duration should be as short as possible and
preferably no more than 5 s (Acton & Morris, 1992). On the
other hand, if ultrasound is used for crystals fragmentation,
acoustic power level should be greater than 1 W/cm2 of
liquid surface and continuous application for at least 10 s is
recommended (Acton & Morris, 1992).
Among the above factors, the influence of acoustic power
has been studied in details by Li and Sun (2002), in which
significant effect of power ultrasound in accelerating the
immersion freezing was observed. During the initial stage of
the phase changing period, temperature of products treated
with higher acoustic power declined more quickly, since
more turbulence was created at high acoustic power (Lima
& Sastry, 1990; Sastry et al., 1989). However, towards the
end of the phase changing process, temperature of product
treated with higher acoustic power level declined more
slowly than those with low power, which as suggested by Li
and Sun (2002) might be associated with the accumulated
thermal effect that power ultrasound has upon the product or
the refrigerant or upon both of them, since sound waves can
be absorbed by the medium through which it transmits and
converted into heat (Floros & Liang, 1994). The negative
effect of power ultrasound on the refrigerant can be
minimised by applying a high refrigerant flow rate as this
might help to maintain constant refrigerant temperature.
The lower freezing rate observed for high acoustic power
during the later stage of the freezing process seems to imply
that this thermal effect is proportional to the level of the
sound energy.
The ability of power ultrasound in accelerating the
freezing process is also affected by its duration or pulse time
(Li & Sun, 2002). As Li and Sun (2002) observed, acoustic
treatment of 1 min did not cause any significant change in
freezing rate. However, noticeable increase of freezing rate
was observed when acoustic exposure time was raised to
1.5, 2, and 2.5 min. Furthermore, during the phase changing
period, freezing rate for potatoes with an acoustic exposure
time of 2.5 min was found to be the fastest, followed by
those treated for 2 min, and potatoes treated for 1.5 min had
the slowest freezing rate. Towards the end of the phase
changing period, temperature reduction for potatoes treated
for 2.5 min was slower than 2 min. This might again be due
to the accumulated thermal effect, which is proportional to
the acoustic duration.
In summary, ultrasound can promote ice nucleation due
to cavitation and enhance heat and mass transfer due to
microstreaming agitation. However, ultrasound also generates energy. On one hand, there is no doubt that the
ultrasound can increase the quality of frozen foods with
smaller ice crystal size. On the other hand, the generated
heat due to ultrasound and the latent heat of phase change
must be removed from the product to cold medium by
conduction and convection. The parameters of ultrasonic

power and duration or pulse time should be carefully

selected.
Recommendations for design of ultrasound-assisted
freezers
Apart from its ability in solving real problems, the future
development of the application of power ultrasound in
assisting food freezing is also strongly linked to the
availability of adequate industrial equipment. Generally
speaking, since it is not a replacement of current freezing
technique, it is preferred that ultrasonic device can be
designed in a way that it could be used in conjunction with
existing freezers. The acoustic energy can be applied
directly to the product, e.g. by direct immersion of
ultrasonic probes in the process fluid, or indirectly from a
transducer coupling through parts of process vessels (Acton
& Morris, 1992), therefore the particular form of ultrasonic
apparatus used will vary according to the product and the
type of freezers.
Furthermore, as the effects of ultrasound on freezing may
be linked to the nature of food matrix and the active part of
ultrasound inside a processing container is usually restricted
to a zone located in the vicinity of the ultrasonic emitter,
ultrasound frequency and refrigeration capacity may have
great effects on the ultrasound-assisted freezing. In
particular, the ultrasonic wave distribution inside a
processing vessel is a key parameter in the design of an
ultrasound-assisted processing system. Ultrasonic intensity
decreases rather abruptly as the distance from the radiating
surface increases. Also, ultrasound intensity is attenuated
with the increase of the presence of solid particles. This
causes much difficult to use ultrasound in a freezing process.
Therefore the ultrasonic device should be carefully arranged
in the design of an ultrasound-assisted freezer in order to
minimise these negative effects.
Air blast freezer
Air blast freezing is currently used most widely in the
food industry, which operates either in batch or

Generator

Radiating surface

Product

Convey or belt

Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of ultrasonic assisted food freezing on

a conveyor belt freezer inside an air blast room.

L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

21

Fig. 6. Possible locations for attaching ultrasonic device to the scraped surface freezer.

continuously. Equipment for the continuous process

consists of trolleys stacked with food, or of conveyor belts
carrying the food through an insulated tunnel. Therefore,
technical problems might arise regarding how to attach
ultrasonic device to the moving parts. One possibility is to
adopt the air-borne power ultrasound technology that is
already in use for the beverage industry for de-foaming in
the canning lines (Gallego-Juraez, 1998), since this type of
ultrasonic transmitter does not need to be in direct contact
with the freezer. An example is given in Fig. 5.
Immersion freezer
Immersion freezing is a process where packaged food
passes through a bath of refrigerant on a submerged mesh
conveyor (Fellows, 2000). Power ultrasound can be applied
through the refrigerant, with the mechanical vibrations
either generated by ultrasonic probes directly positioned
inside the refrigerant or transducers mounted to the walls of
the refrigerant tank.
Plate freezer
Plate freezer is usually utilised for contact surface
freezing (Fellows, 2000). For this type of freezer, the
transducers can be directly welded to the underneath of the
contact surface. This arrangement also brings some
additional benefit, since heat generated by the transducer
can be carried away by the refrigerant.
Chest freezer
For this type of freezer, food is frozen in stationary air,
which is more commonly used for storage of fresh foodstuffs
frozen using other freezing methods (Fellows, 2000).
During frozen storage, ice recrystallisation occurs very
often due to temperature fluctuation, which will increase
crystal size and consequently damage product quality
(Fellows, 2000). Application of power ultrasound during
frozen storage can possibly help to compensate the negative

effect of recrystallisation due to its ability in fragmenting

crystals. The acoustic energy can either be air borne or
applied through transducer coupling with product holders.
Scraped surface freezer
The ultrasonic device can be attached to the scraped
surface freezer at several different locations as shown Fig. 6.
The most preferably place will be on the external surface of
the freezer barrel (A). In the freezer, the region of most rapid
crystal growth is near the inner surface of the freezer barrel.
This arrangement will appear to generate the maximum
effect of crystals refinement. Since crystals grow over the
whole surface of the freezer barrel wall, it is thus preferable
to apply ultrasound to all over the whole processing surface.
Such positioning of transducers can also reduce the thermal
effects caused by ultrasound, as the heat generated by the
transducers will be absorbed by the refrigerant rather than
by the product. Transducers may also be mounted on the
outside surface of the freezer (B), in this case, ultrasound
will be transmitted through the outer wall of the refrigerant
jacket, then through the refrigerant and finally, the barrel
wall. The major advantage of this arrangement is that
transducers could be attached to freezer very easily,
however, significant acoustic power may be lost to the
vessel walls and the refrigerant. The transducers can also be
sealed through the outer wall of the freezer jacket and
directly attached to the inner wall (C). The rotating shaft is
another possible location for the transducers (D). Finally,
the ultrasound vibration can also be produced via a vibrating
plates positioned in the bulk of the liquid (E), which
however, requires special attention due to the movement of
the rotor. Heat generated by the transducers within the liquid
needs to be considered as well.
Conclusions
In this paper, various mechanisms of power ultrasound
when it is applied to the specific field of food freezing are

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L. Zheng, D.-W. Sun / Trends in Food Science & Technology 17 (2006) 1623

reviewed. Among them, cavitation is perhaps the most

significant one. Cavitaiton can result in the occurrence of
microstreaming, which is able to enhance the heat and mass
transfer accompanying the freezing process. The gas
bubbles generated during cavitation can also act as nuclei
to initiate the ice nucleation process and increase ice
nucleation rate. Crystal fragmentation is another significant
phenomena associated with the transmitting of power
ultrasound, which can lead to crystal size reduction.
Resulting from these acoustic effects, power ultrasound
has proved itself an effective method in assisting food
freezing and its benefits are wide-ranged. In addition to its
traditional application in accelerating ice nucleation
process, it can also be applied to freeze concentration and
freeze drying processes in order to control crystal size
distribution in the frozen products. If it is applied to the
process of freezing fresh foodstuffs, ultrasound can not only
increase the freezing rate, but also improve the quality of the
frozen products. Application of power ultrasound can also
benefit ice cream manufacture by reducing crystal size,
preventing incrustation on freezing surface, etc.
The ability of power ultrasound in performing these
functions is affected by a variety of parameters, such as the
duration, intensity or frequency of ultrasonic waves, etc.
More fundamental research is still needed to establish their
relationships with the acoustic efficiency.
The future of power ultrasound in assisting food freezing
is also linked to the development of adequate industrial
equipment. In fact, the commercial application of a new
technology depends on the design of equipment that is easy
to operate and is cost-effective besides its ability to solve
real problems. In this paper, some methods are also
proposed on how to conjugate ultrasonic devices to some
commercial freezing equipment, which still require considerable research effort in order to verify their feasibility
and practicality.
In general, research up-to-date indicates that although
commercial development of this technology is still not
available, the potential of power ultrasound to aid food
freezing is promising, research hurdles do not appear to be
insurmountable and its benefits to manufacturers appear
large. Especially, ultrasonic freezing process could have
promising applications in freezing of high value food
(ingredients) and pharmaceutical products.

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