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Synchrotron X-ray tomography let researchers watch ice crystals and air cells change together inside ice cream during controlled warming and refreezing. After repeated temperature cycles, both structures coarsened; ice-crystal growth slowed after seven cycles as crystals approached the scale of the walls between air cells, while air cells continued to grow and connect.
How the researchers imaged ice cream
Enyu Guo and co-authors combined synchrotron X-ray tomography with cryo-scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) to study ice cream as a soft solid containing ice, liquid, fat and air. Their paper, published in RSC Advances on 9 March 2017, reports observations of fresh samples after 0, 7 and 14 thermal cycles between −15 °C and −5 °C. Read the study.
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To capture the structure without uncontrolled temperature changes during imaging, the team used a bespoke tomography cold stage. They also improved pink-beam in-line phase contrast and developed a reconstruction strategy to process and denoise the tomographic images. The study’s “keeps its cool” idea refers to maintaining a cold sample during laboratory imaging; it is not a consumer scanning technique.
What changed during warming and refreezing?
Both ice crystals and air cells became coarser as the samples underwent thermal cycling. The authors report that ice-crystal growth slowed significantly after seven cycles, as crystals approached the size of the walls between air cells. Air cells, in contrast, continued to coarsen and formed interconnected channels. The researchers interpret the evolving air-cell structure as one factor that limits further ice-crystal growth.
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As Guo and co-authors put it, “The growth of ice crystals almost ceases after 7 thermal cycles when they approach the size of the walls between air cells, while air cells continue to coarsen, forming interconnected channels.” That finding describes the samples and controlled cycling conditions in this experiment, not a universal rate of change for every ice cream.
Why the internal structure matters
Ice cream is a multi-phase soft solid. The paper gives approximate volume proportions of about 30% ice, 50% air, 5–15% fat droplets and about 15% unfrozen aqueous sugar solution. These are broad estimates, not a fixed recipe for all products. The paper’s composition discussion draws on background such as H. Douglas Goff and Richard W. Hartel’s The Science of Ice Cream.
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Texture depends in part on the size of ice crystals and air bubbles: smaller ones are associated with a smoother, creamier texture. The University of Manchester’s account of the work explains this connection and provides broader context about storage. See the University of Manchester case study. The tomography experiment itself did not measure the shelf life of every brand or establish a universal consumer-storage rule.
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Tomography reconstructs a three-dimensional volume, making it possible to examine phase shape and connectivity rather than only a cut or fracture surface. The authors say its sampled volumes were more statistically representative than those available from cryo-SEM in their comparison. Cryo-SEM still contributes high-resolution two-dimensional views; the paper does not establish that tomography is superior for every imaging purpose.
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The work offers a way to understand how ice and air structures evolve under controlled temperature cycling. It does not predict exactly how quickly a particular grocery product will lose quality in a real supply chain, where products and temperature histories vary.
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