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Does anyone have experience freezing pre-cut fresh fruit for presentation?

Some time ago I had the opportunity to work with an Irinox ultra-freezer and, although I have never personally tested it, I remember that one of the points emphasized in the equipment training was that it would be able to freeze a whole strawberry and defrost it completely without it losing (or losing minimally) its initial volume, because the power of the equipment was so great that there would be no crystallization in the strawberry's cell membranes and, therefore, there would be no rupture and consequently no loss of volume.

I recently took over an operation that involves the use of fresh fruit and I came across a problem of seasonality linked to high prices and I am trying to find a solution to minimize waste in the operation and maximize time, hence the reference of the ULT freezer. I would like to know if anyone has had this experience with the fruit being used specifically for presentation before.

Thank you!

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    Your main question is about texture but then in the body you write about volume? In my experience the big issue with freezing is texture not volume so you might want to clarify what you are interested in.
    – quarague
    Commented Sep 3 at 6:39
  • I don't have any experience with food and a ULT (-80 C usually), but use them all the time in my job. To freeze without crystals you need to add cryoprotectants. These aren't things you'd want to eat as they are often toxic and smell not very nice (at least the better working ones like DMSO, glycerol is fine too). But that's to keep things alive when thawed, so very minimal crystals wanted, and might be different if you only mostly want structure intact.
    – bob1
    Commented Sep 3 at 20:54
  • @quarague Volume/mass will play a part, the bigger the volume/mass the slower it freezes and thaws, giving ice crystals time to grow. Snap freezing on dry ice or in Liquid N2 works well, you'd want to thaw fast too - sealed in a vac-pac and ubmerged in a room temp (or warmer) water bath might work. It'll work best on solidish foods like carrot. I suspect that strawberries will be too watery for it to work, though they have enough sugar to act as cryoprotectant to some level.
    – bob1
    Commented Sep 3 at 20:59

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