Various kinds of frozen foods are produced and distributed widely, for applications ranging from home use to commercial use. Most of the fishery products and meats we buy at supermarkets have been frozen at least once in the distribution process, and freezing has deeply penetrated into and become indispensable in our lives. Approximately 70% of the pre-cooked frozen foods produced in Japan are for commercial use, and freezing is an indispensable technique in the food service and home replacement meal service industries.
Although it is often believed that food freezing techniques are well established, there are actually many unsolved problems; for example, freezing preservation is not possible for some foods such as raw vegetables and konjac, a method of quantitatively determining the quality of frozen-thawed foods has not been established, and it is still difficult to determine the ideal thawing method for frozen foods of arbitrary conditions. The reasons include the following: freezing and thawing phenomena of food are complicated, with scientifically unsolved matters because food originates from living things, and research and development requires knowledge of a wide variety of fields because food-freezing techniques include technologies relating to various disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
Our laboratory maximizes the use of available techniques and knowledge to investigate all aspects of food refrigeration. By this means, we aim to contribute to the resolution of large-scale problems such as a future need for food in outer space, preservation of living organs, and the establishment of a sustainable society.

For research contents, please click on the icon below and visit the website of Food Freezing Laboratory.