Characteristics and applications of plant-derived antifreeze proteins in frozen dough: A review

Frozen dough technology has been widely used in the food industry at home and abroad due to its advantages of extending shelf life, preventing aging, and facilitating refrigeration and transportation. However, during the transportation and storage process of frozen dough, the growth and recrystallization of ice crystals caused by temperature fluctuations can lead to a deterioration in the quality of the dough, resulting in poor sensory characteristics of the final product and decreased consumption, which limits the large-scale application of frozen dough. In response to this issue, antifreeze proteins (AFPs) could be used as a beneficial additive to frozen dough that can combine with ice crystals, modify the ice crystal morphology, reduce the freezing point of water, and inhibit the recrystallization of ice crystals. Because of its special structure and function, it can well alleviate the quality deterioration problem caused by ice crystal recrystallization during frozen storage of dough, especially the plant-derived AFPs, which have a prominent effect on inhibiting ice crystal recrystallization. In this review, we introduce the characteristics and mechanisms of action of plant-derived AFPs. Furthermore, the application of plant-derived AFPs in frozen dough are also discussed.