Common stabilizers used in ice cream, such as guar gum, carob bean gum and cellulose gum, function to reduce the degree of ice crystal growth by influencing viscosity and other rheological properties, thus limiting the mobility of water in the unfrozen aqueous portion. This effect increases when the influence of freeze concentration further enhances the effects of stabilizers on viscosity.
At a point referred to as the “break point,” the degree of concentration can cause stabilizer and, possibly, other water-soluble compounds, to interact with each other, sometimes irreversibly, thus markedly increasing the effect on water mobility. It is also conceivable that this phenomenon combined with the extreme freeze concentration that occurs at low frozen storage temperatures can produce other interactions between individual water-soluble compounds.