Cryogenic Crust Freezing for Meat Products
Industrial Maths study group series – second problem announced for Clean and Sustainable Growth event
Driving translation of mathematical and statistical research advances into high-value applications in industry is vital to unlocking key societal and economic challenges in clean growth and sustainability.  KTN is running a series of Industrial Maths study groups exploring the application of the mathematical sciences to develop solutions to industry problems from sectors as diverse as agriculture, food production, biotechnology and resource efficiency.
The Clean and Sustainable Growth study group which will take place in Nottingham from 29 April – 1 May and a range of problems will be tackled by researchers.  The second problem has been announced and the organisers, KTN, alongside the University of Nottingham, are looking for researchers to work on the following conundrum:
Improving the process for cryogenic crust-freezing for meatproducts, presented by Cranswick PLC
Cranswick PLC is a leading UK food producer and supplier of premium, fresh and added-value food products.  To improve appearance in the pack, yield and slicing speed capability, meat products are routinely cooled so that the surface ‘crust’ is frozen.
The current process is for the meat product to be cooled by cold air.  The movement of the meat product to the production line is thought to be inefficient in terms of labour and energy costs; it is believed Cranswick loses up to 60 % of the energy used to crust-freeze in the first place.  Cranswick would like to explore processing methods which would bring this cooling time down significantly, potentially using cryogens as the cooling medium.
If you are a researcher working in a UK university who would like to work on this problem at the study group in Nottingham from 29 April – 1 May, please register here.  Early stage career academics, Ph.D students and postdocs are particularly welcome.
This study group is fully-funded by the University of Nottingham’s Leverhulme Doctoral
Scholarships programme, Modelling and Analytics for a Sustainable Society, with support from KTN.