Frozen Pearls from Dairy Crest.

Tiny frozen pearls of cream, the latest product from Dairy Crest Ingredients of Diary Crest House, Portsmouth Road, Surbiton, Surrey, tel:[phone], is poised to transform the way in which the food industry can work with a basic ingredient.

Frozen Pearls(R) are about the size of garden peas and offer a breakthrough to the manufacturing market, particularly to customers requiring small deliveries of cream on a regular basis.

The frozen cream offers a range of benefits. Unlike chilled cream, that has a shelf-life of five days, the Frozen Pearls(R), packed into lined boxes of 10 Kg cases, offer customers an ideal opportunity to cut down on wastage through microbiological spoilage. The frozen pellets can be kept in frozen storage, below - 18[degrees]C, for up to six months.

Frozen Pearls(R) can also be manufactured to a specific fat percentage, the most commonly used percentages are 18%, 40% and 48%. The droplets are easy to scoop or pour into mixes, They have the added value of helping to cool down hot mixes and are ideal for enhancing ready meals, ice cream, soups and sauces.

The new product is produced by the Cryoflow process. Pasteurised cream is fed through a series of injectors into stream of liquid nitrogen flowing into a bath of liquified gas. As it falls, droplets of cream freeze into tiny pellets, first forming a frozen shell and emerging at the end of the process as solid Frozen Pearls(R). The rapid freezing process ensures the product is freeze thaw stable, it does not separate when thawed but will retain its whipping characteristics, they tell us.