日本科学家创制不会融化的冰淇淋

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来自日本《朝日新闻》（The Asahi Shimbun）的广告宣传照片

A woman holds Kanazawa Ice（金泽冰淇淋）, a popsicle that is billed as not melting easily, in Kanazawa on July 19. (Kenta Sujino)

据物理学家组织网（Phys.org）2017年8月7日报道,日本科学家研制出不会融化的冰淇淋。

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

日本的一个科学家小组已经开发出了一种不融化冰淇淋的生产方法，并已经投放市场进行销售。这种不融化的冰淇淋是一名厨师意外发现的。大多数冰淇淋都是刚刚从一个容器中取出放入碗中或锥型容器内不一会儿就开始融化。由于此原因,人们不得不将其很快吃完，难以慢慢品尝凉爽感，否则就会融化掉。但现在这种情况可能会被改变,因为日本的一个研究团队已经找到了一种方法，无论你多么慢慢来品尝冰淇淋，它都会保持原形而不会融化。

据说此种不融化的冰淇淋是源于日本一位厨师的过失，事情还得追溯到2011年，在日本受地震和海啸影响的地区需要找出一种适用于草莓生长的方法,解决受灾地区草莓无法正常生长、消费者也愿意购买其之难题。厨师一度试图将草莓用于其他方面,在某处有人抱怨使用草莓会导致冰淇淋固化。听到此抱怨,金泽大学（Kanazawa University）的一个研究团队做了更细致的观察,发现草莓中一种被称之为多酚的化合物会引起冰淇淋固化。提取过程中他们发现,水和油很难使其分离开,这是否就是发生在普通冰淇淋固化的原因所在？他们试着与冰淇淋混合,发现它可以防止冰淇淋融化。

因为此种提取物完全是天然产物,它不需要通过食品健康安检员的安全性测试,提供给当地店主他们也很乐意开始销售预压形状的冰淇淋棒或消费者更非常乐意试试的冰淇淋其它形式。当地媒体获悉此故事,很快,消息传播到世界各地。当地报纸都会刊登报道品尝如此奇妙的冰淇淋，口味究竟如何，毫无疑问，显然仍好。一些消费者为了证实此冰淇淋的确具有抗热性能，将他们的冰淇淋在阳光直射下许多分钟,看看它是否会融化。也有其他人采取了更加苛刻的方法,对冰淇淋样品置于吹风机或其他人工加热环境下，考验其抗融化性能。根据大家的考验结果,既是在高温天气，冰淇淋在几个小时内仍然保持其原有形状而不会融化，而含在嘴里却能感觉到冰冷凉爽。因为新冰淇淋仍然是一种新产品,尚不清楚它是否会转让到其他国家。目前,它仅仅只在日本销售，未来情况如何，让我们拭目以待吧。

Photo: Kanazawa Ice/Facebook

“Polyphenol liquid has properties to make it difficult for water and oil to separate”, said Tomihisa Ota, a professor at Kanazawa University, who helped develop the innovative treat. “So a popsicle containing it will be able to retain the original shape of the cream for a longer time than usual, and be hard to melt”

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Photo: Kanazawa Ice/Facebook

So how much slower does a strawberry polyphenol ice-cream melt? Well, according to  Takeshi Toyoda, president of the Biotherapy Development Research Center, it would retain its shape even when “exposed to the hot air from a dryer”. But Japanese reporters didn’t take his words for it, instead testing the unmelting ice-cream themselves. Last month, reporters from Asahi Shimbun wrote that the popsicle “retained its original shape” after 5 minutes being exposed to heat (around 28 degrees Celsius).

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Photo: Kanazawa Ice/Facebook

The guys at Sora News also put the new ice-cream to the test, leaving it out for a whole tree hours. Even though it pretty much became a creamy goo at the end of the test, it took a while for it to reach that state, and even then, it still mostly retained its shape.

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