•Notícia

href="https://saladepremsa2.upc.edu/en"" target="_blank">Department of Heat Engines that has created this revolutionary process, a great improvement on any current freezing system.

The process that this team has devised and patented has been christened Nice Cold System and it is based on the cold dehydration of fresh fruit, prior to beginning the ultra-rapid freezing process. “It involves removing a small quantity of water from the fruit, just enough to ensure that when the water becomes solid, it will fit inside each cell. Anyone can perform dehydration by means of a hot process, but then volatile substances such as smells are lost. Our process uses cold air, because the cold also helps to preserve the fruit,” Nacenta adds.

After dehydration, there is a stabilisation process. Nacenta explains that it is necessary to wait for a short time, so that the percentage of water remaining in the fruit becomes uniformly distributed across its entire surface once again. “And then we perform ultra-rapid freezing. After five minutes, the piece of fruit has been deep frozen at temperatures of between 25 and 30°C below zero,” the researcher and entrepreneur declares.

Reversing the process for consumption is as easy as removing the fruit from the freezer in plenty of time, or putting it into the microwave to speed up the defrosting process. Therefore, fruit is defrosted in exactly the same way as other foods such as meat or fish.

Nice Cold System is the first technology in the world with the capacity to freeze fruit and vegetables that have been picked when perfectly ripe, and to ensure that their characteristics and nutritional properties remain unchanged for a period of up to three years. This is something that traditional processes have never been able to achieve.

The project was commenced in 2003, when Josep Maria Nacenta began to develop the innovative fruit freezing system for fresh consumption. With the help of the UPC’s Research Valorisation Unit, the Nice Cold System was patented in 2007 and it was well received by the Spanish fruit and vegetable sector.

The technology took a giant step forward when the Fenoexit investment group provided support. It was also at this time that the company Nice Fruit was established, initially held by Fenoexit, the UPC and Josep Maria Nacenta. In 2011, the fruit distribution and production group Cutting’s joined the shareholders in the company. The Genoma España foundation has also played a part in the Nice Fruit project.In order to be able to eat strawberries all the year round, or to import tomatoes from the Netherlands or peaches from Chile and South Africa, for example, it is inevitable that these products are picked before they are ripe. On their long journeys, these products are refrigerated and stored in order to delay the ripening process, but they are tasteless by the time they reach the table.

According to the promoters of Nice Fruit, this technological innovation means that products can be frozen at source, when they are perfectly ripe and abundant, and then they can be exported all over the world without any time constraints.

Another advantage offered by the technology is the opportunity for improved stock management, since products can be frozen and placed in the market when the time is right. This technology has already attracted the attention of Chinese investors, who are interested in introducing the system in their own country.