Effects of diffrent freezing and thawing techniques on quality characteristics of strawberries

Freezing is a food preservation technique that is widely used in extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and provides high quality product formation compared to many other methods. However, the freezing process can cause physical and chemical changes that affect the quality of the final product or some thawed foods. In this study; Freezing and freezing of two different strawberry fruits, namely Strawberries (Fragaria), a plant genus in the Rosaceae family, and fern and camarosa species, which are used in the production of frozen strawberries in the food industry, using IQF (individual quick freezing) and static freezing methods. In this study, it was aimed to examine the physical, chemical and microbiological quality changes that occur as a result of thawing the frozen strawberry fruits produced with different thawing techniques. For this purpose, fruits were first frozen using IQF and normal static freezing methods. Then, thawing was carried out under 6 different conditions in order to determine the freezing quality and quality losses. These processes were solved by applying the techniques of thawing at room conditions, thawing at refrigerator conditions and using ohmic system operated at three different voltages (40V 50V, 60V). As a result, with this study, what kind of changes in the quality of the final product or thawed foods caused by the freezing process were investigated and analyzed in terms of physical, chemical and microbiological aspects, and different techniques were compared in terms of quality.