Freezing is a widely used method to extend the shelf life of foods. However, the frozen products are subjected to temperature fluctuations during storage and shipping, which cause events such as ice recrystallization and moisture/mass migration that further damage food quality. This paper reviews the mechanisms of ice crystal formation, propagation, and glass transition and presents experimental results about the effect of freeze-thaw cycles on ice recrystallization. The mathematical models for prediction of freezing time and description of heat and mass transfer during the freezing process are also addressed. The crystal formation and moisture/mass mobility involve multiscale characteristics, while the traditional modeling can only describe single-scale averaged effects. Therefore, the hybrid mixture theory (HMT), which is based on multiscale balance laws and entropy inequality, is also discussed in the context of the freezing problem to predict phase change, crystal growth, and thermomechanical effects.

冷冻是延长食品货架寿命的广泛使用的方法。但是，冷冻产品在储存和运输过程中会受到温度波动的影响，这会引起诸如冰的重结晶和水分/质量迁移等事件，从而进一步损害食品质量。本文回顾了冰晶形成，传播和玻璃化转变的机理，并提出了关于冻融循环对冰重结晶影响的实验结果。还介绍了用于预测冻结时间以及描述冻结过程中的传热和传质的数学模型。晶体形成和水分/质量迁移率涉及多尺度特征，而传统建模只能描述单尺度平均效应。因此，混合混合理论（HMT）