Dendritic growth of ice crystals during the freezing of beef

The morphology adopted by ice in frozen tissues is accepted as one of the factors responsible for freezing damage. For this reason ice nucleation and growing mechanisms have been extensively studied. However, under the conditions used in the industry, where important temperature gradients exist, the classical analysis of nucleation and growth, depending on the supercooling, is complicated by the dendritic growth of crystals as well as by the possibility of the location of the ice crystal inside or outside the cells. In the present paper experiments which verify the existence of dendritic ice growth during the freezing of beef are described. The dendritic growth rate of ice in beef is measured as a function of the supercooling and an analysis of the expected mechanism, according to freezing conditions, is also provided.