It’s being touted as a completely new approach to ‘ice’ for cooling resto beverages and other appli-cations that require long-term cooling. And it’s other qualities could prove truly revolutionary…
Can be refrozen…
Chemists Jiahan Zou and Gang Sun have developed a new version of jelly ice made from a geletain blend that turns into jelly when it thaws, and can be refrozen. Early announcements say the new substance can be frozen in a any shape or size you like.
But there’s no indication as to how well it holds its shape between freezings.
Inspired by frozen tofu…
Food scientist Luxin Wang, at the University of California, Davis, asked Zou and Gang Sun if it was possible to create a reusable alternative to regular ice. She became concerned after she observed seafood products sitting atop melting regular ice, with all its component streams of contaminted runoff running together.
Wang specifcially raised concerns about the potential spread of pathogens at grocery stores, where she’d seen seafood on display atop melting ice for relatively long periods of times. Another appli-cation, obviously, would buffet restaurants where keeping cold foods below the safe, minimum ‘on the ice’ temperature (around 40 F / 40 C) have long been spotlighted by health inspectors and servers alike.
Zou and Sun took the idea from observing how tofu freezes and thaws, and according to them, “frozen tofu keeps its water inside, but when you thaw it, it releases the water. So, we tried to solve that issue with another material: gelatin.”
Special features…
The current version of Jelly Ice contains 90 percent water, and will still hold to not only hold it’s shape, but Zou and Sun also claim it can be cleaned under liquid water or even a dilute bleach solution.
Jelly Ice can currently be produced in slabs ab0out 1 lb. / 500 g in size. But larger ones are in the works. And the first commercial applications have already been licensed. Interest has been shown by a wide range of industries. And in the end (literally), Jelly ice is fully compostable…
My take
Jelly Ice has many clear advantages. Whether it can meet the rules for commercial use, including repeated re-use cleaning and sanitation over reasonable periods of time remains to be seen…
~ Maggie J.