Isochoric Food Preservation
Project Overview
University
Year
About
Refrigeration slows food spoilage, while freezing extends storage but can damage texture and freshness through ice formation. Isochoric Food Preservation places food inside a rigid, water-filled vessel cooled slightly below 0 °C. As a small amount of water freezes, pressure rises naturally, preserving the food while preventing the food itself from freezing. In published tests, raw milk retained fresh-like quality for five weeks. Integrated into cold-storage facilities, the method could reduce food waste and extend distribution time without conventional deep freezing.
Team
Alan Maida
I am a mechanical engineer and researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, developing technologies at the intersection of preservation science, biology, and engineering. My work spans low-pressure isochoric freezing for fresh-food preservation, human-scale isochoric systems for organ preservation, and fundamental studies of supercooling and ice nucleation. I have also developed an isochoric bioreactor for tissue manufacturing in space, with integrated preservation capabilities designed to return viable tissue grown in microgravity to Earth, with a planned launch in December 2026. My focus is translating preservation science and engineering into scalable technologies for food, medicine, and space-based biomanufacturing.