Unravelling the Chemical Physics of Carbohydrate Cryoprotectants for Use in Food using Novel Molecular Dynamics Methodologies

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Solidification processes are common occurrences in our daily lives and an important process in industrial food production. For example, freezing of food for storage or to prevent food degradation is a routine practice across the globe. Yet, there is currently a lack of information on the detailed molecular processes of freezing foods. Understanding such processes is relevant in the freezing of seafood and animal muscle tissue for preservation and long-term storage to ensure the quality of such foods. Cryogenically freezing seafood before frozen storage has been demonstrated to retain a high-quality texture and flavor due to the rapid rate of freezing. Fast freezing rates are recognized to retain desirable attributes of seafood due to smaller ice crystal formation during the freezing process, which is less detrimental to muscle proteins compared with slower freezing rates. Introducing additives like carbohydrate cryoprotectants and salts also contributes to smaller ice crystals and enhances the quality of frozen food during freezing and the frozen storage of seafood. Addition of these compounds has been shown to extend shelf life of seafood and significantly improve quality. However, a fundamental understanding of how these cryoprotectants serve to prevent frozen damage to such foods is unclear from a microscopic molecular perspective. Computer simulation techniques offer unique insights into such complex molecular environments, as it avoids the limitations of current experiments and can be used in tandem with experiments to support experimental observations. This proposed research program will systematically undertake computational investigations into complex food carbohydrates probing their detailed molecular properties and behaviour for use as effective cryoprotectants. This research program will make significant scientific contributions to the study of food solidification processes and the freezing of biological tissues generally. A thorough understanding of the properties of these natural compounds will be invaluable to producing effective cryoprotectants for seafood. The importance and benefits of this research program to Canadians are significant. Furthermore, the scientific discoveries and insights could be applied to other industrial research areas for the design of structured foods (such as frozen dairy, margarine, pastries) and better long term frozen storage with cryoprotectants (of seafood, meat and vegetables). In addition, the use of cryoprotectants has enormous potential and can be extended to applications of cryopreservation of human and animal cells, tissues and organs.