Entry Date:
July 17, 2009

Novel Carbonated Frozen Desserts

Principal Investigator John Brisson


A process has been developed to produce carbonated frozen desserts unlikeanything currently found on the market. Imagine a sorbet that tastes just as carbonated asa fresh soda pop - providing not only tanginess and tingling, but also CO2 bubblesbursting on the tongue. The dessert initially has the texture of fresh fallen snow -- a light,fluffy powder. The dessert is fully frozen, like hard serve ice cream, but the fine flakesare easily scooped, packed into a desired shape, or stirred, allowing mixing of flavors orincorporation of add-ins such as fruit bits. The dessert can be made from a range ofingredients mixtures, from ice cream to sorbet to alcoholic drinks (i.e. margarita).The process to create this fizzy frozen dessert is called CO2 flash freezing. In theprocess the ingredients mixture (in a liquid state) is pressurized to 50-60 atmospheres andsprayed into liquid CO2. Then the combined fluids are flashed to 10-20 atmospheresthrough a nozzle. The rapid pressure drop causes CQ to evaporate, instantaneouslyfreezing the mixture to a temperature between -40 and -20°C (typical hard-serve icecreams are at -20°C), CO2 is trapped in the dessert as it freezes by a solid C02-H20structure known as CO2 clathrate hydrate. There are several advantages to the CO2 flashfreezing process. The dessert is frozen and carbonated rapidly, without use of a scraped-surface heat exchanger (as in conventional ice cream freezers) or a multi-step process toincorporate CO2 clathrate hydrates (as has been proposed in a few patents in the past 10years). Equipment maintenance is likely to be reduced compared to conventionalfreezers because the only moving part is the ingredients mixture pump.The dessert could be produced for immediate consumption or for packaging anddistribution; however, significant work is needed to develop packaging that appropriatelymanages CO2 pressure during distribution. The dessert must be stored at a pressure a fewatmospheres higher than typical soda pop pressures.Future Aims: CO2 flash freezing has been successfully demonstrated in two batch apparatusimplementations. Important next steps include consumer testing, developing acontinuous imolementation of the orocess. in narticular a method to continuously extracthe powder, and developing packaging. Our aim is to get this novel dessert out andavailable to the public. It is likely that the best path is to initially target production of thedessert for immediate consumption and build interest, and then expand into packagedfrozen desserts. A batch apparatus for production in front of the consumer would notrequire significant technical development. Some work has already been done on powderextraction, but investment in equipment development is needed. Development of novelpackaging could be the research topic of an MIT graduate student.