Freeze-drying (lyophilisation)
Liofilización (secado por congelación)
- Date
- 1934 · confidence medium
- Place
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Earl Flosdorf and Stuart Mudd
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The microbiologists Flosdorf and Mudd developed at the University of Pennsylvania an apparatus to dehydrate frozen serum and plasma under vacuum. The technique spread to coffee, fruit and whole meals that rehydrate without losing shape or aroma.
D'Arsonval and Bordas described the principle in 1906 and Altmann had dried frozen tissues in 1890. Commercial freeze-dried coffee dates from the 1960s (Maxim, General Foods, 1964). The Andean chuno technique is an empirical precedent.
What it led to
- freeze-dried blood plasma and vaccines in the Second World War
- freeze-dried coffee (1960s) and mountain and space food
- preservation of drugs and cultures