Introduction of Antifreeze Proteins and their Application in the Food Industry

Application of ice structuring proteins (ISPs) as a food preservative has shown great potential to enhance the quality of frozen foods and desserts during frozen storage, transport, and thawing. The major role of these proteins is controling and preventing the formation of larger ice crystals and ice recrystallization, which eventually damage the cell wall and result in drip loss of the sap from the tissue during thawing. Another important point about these proteins is that they are active in very low amounts for the food industry. They have been discovered in many cold tolerating biological systems such as fishes, plants and insects, which all have ice recrystallization inhibition and some cases exhibit, thermal hysteresis and ice nucleating activities. The aim of this study was to introduce antifreeze proteins, mechanisms of their action and potential applications for them in the food industry.