Antifreeze activities of various food components

The antifreeze activities of various food components were measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and their immobilizing activities for water molecules were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The antifreeze activities of saccharides that consisted of glucose were higher than those of the others. In salts, those which possessed high ionic charge had high antifreeze activities. The DSC results were consistent with the NMR observations, that is, food components which had high antifreeze activity also had high immobilizing activity for water molecules. In water-soluble amino acids, a few amino acids which formed no eutectic mixture above -20 degrees C had especially high antifreeze activities.