Texture and structure of high-pressure-frozen gellan gum gel

To determine the effects of sucrose and high-pressure-freezing, unsubstituted form-gellan gum gels with 0, 5, 10 or 20% sucrose were frozen at 0.1–686 MPa and −20 °C. Gels were frozen during pressurization at 0.1, 100, 600–686 MPa. However, at 200–500 MPa, gels did not freeze but froze during pressure release (pressure-shift-freezing). On pressure release, a sharp rise in sample temperature was observed for the samples between 200 and 500 MPa. This was a consequence of the exothermic freezing event. Thus, appearance and structure of gels frozen at 200–500 MPa were better than other treated samples due to quick freezing. However, when gels were frozen at 0.1–686 MPa, rupture stress decreased remarkably and strain increased. Texture of pressure-shift-frozen gel was somewhat better than that of gels frozen in freezers (−20, −30 or −80 °C) at atmospheric pressure. Consequently pressure-shift-freezing was more effective. It was found that the addition of sucrose to gels was effective in improving the quality of frozen gellan gum gels.