Development of a feedback-regulated temperature control system to enable supercooling reversion in beef preservation

Abstract

Supercooling preservation offers significant advantages for maintaining food quality by delaying ice crystal formation, however, owing to its inherent thermodynamic instability, sustaining the supercooled state of food matrices is difficult. To address this limitation, we developed a temperature-feedback control-based supercooling (TFCS) system that extends the supercooled state of beef tenderloins and reverts it to supercooling by inducing immediate micro-thawing upon ice nucleation. TFCS is equipped with modules for temperature monitoring to detect ice nucleation events and control the electric resistance heater for micro-thawing. During the 7-day storage tests at −5 °C, as up to three nucleation events occurred, TFCS effectively responded to these events and continuously prolonged the supercooled state, as intended. All beef samples stored with TFCS maintained superior freshness in terms of color presevation, texture, and microstructure compared to those stored using conventional refrigeration and freezing. These findings suggest that the temperature-responsive feedback control module, incorporating ice nucleation and micro-thawing, enables the practical application of supercooled preservation in commercial settings.