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Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing
Freezing

In physical science, freezing or solidification is the process in which a liquid turns into a solid when cold enough. The Melting point is the temperature at which this happens....
. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation
Food preservation

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms....
 which slows both food decay
Decomposition

Decomposition refers to the process by which tissues of dead organisms break down into simpler forms of matter. Such a breakdown of dead organisms is essential for new growth and development of living organisms because it recycles the finite chemical constituents and frees up the limited physical space in the biome....
 and, by turning water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 to ice
Ice

Ice is a solid phases of matter, usually crystalline solid, of a non-metallic substance that is liquid or gas at room temperature, such as ammonia ice or methane ice....
, makes it unavailable for most bacterial growth and slows down most chemical reaction
Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that always results in the interconversion of chemical substances. The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants....
s.

Process
Freezing only slows the deterioration of food and while it may stop the growth of micro-organisms, it does not necessarily kill them. Many enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
 reactions are only slowed by freezing.






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Encyclopedia


Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing
Freezing

In physical science, freezing or solidification is the process in which a liquid turns into a solid when cold enough. The Melting point is the temperature at which this happens....
. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation
Food preservation

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms....
 which slows both food decay
Decomposition

Decomposition refers to the process by which tissues of dead organisms break down into simpler forms of matter. Such a breakdown of dead organisms is essential for new growth and development of living organisms because it recycles the finite chemical constituents and frees up the limited physical space in the biome....
 and, by turning water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 to ice
Ice

Ice is a solid phases of matter, usually crystalline solid, of a non-metallic substance that is liquid or gas at room temperature, such as ammonia ice or methane ice....
, makes it unavailable for most bacterial growth and slows down most chemical reaction
Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that always results in the interconversion of chemical substances. The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants....
s.

Process


Freezing only slows the deterioration of food and while it may stop the growth of micro-organisms, it does not necessarily kill them. Many enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
 reactions are only slowed by freezing. Therefore it is common to stop enzyme activity before freezing, either by blanching
Blanching

Blanching is a cooking term that describes a process of food preparation wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process....
 or by adding chemicals.

Foods may be preserved for several months by freezing. Long-term freezing requires a constant temperature of -18 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit) or less. Some freezers cannot achieve such a low temperature. The time food can be kept in the freezer is reduced considerably if the temperature in a freezer fluctuates. Fluctuations could occur by a small gap in the freezer door or adding a large amount of unfrozen food.

Quick-freezing

American inventor Clarence Birdseye
Clarence Birdseye

Clarence Frank Birdseye II was an U.S.A. inventor who is considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry....
, who developed the quick-freezing process of food preservation in the early 20th century, is considered the father of the frozen-food industry.

The food industry
Food industry

The food industry is the complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population....
 uses a technique called flash freezing
Flash freezing

Flash freezing refers to the application of supercooling in various kinds of industries whereby objects are quickly frozen by subjecting them to cryogenic temperatures....
, an application of supercooling
Supercooling

Supercooling is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas below its melting point, without it becoming a solid.A liquid below its standard freezing point will crystallization process in the presence of a nucleation around which a crystal structure can form....
, to quickly freeze food items. In this case, water contained inside the food is subjected to temperatures well below its melting/freezing point
Melting point

The melting point of a solid is the temperature range at which it changes states of matter from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium....
 (273 K or 0°C). This causes the water inside the foods to freeze.

Traditional and other use

Many Arctic
Arctic

The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctica region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland....
 communities would preserve food in holes or larder
Larder

A larder is a cool area for storing food prior to use.Larders were commonplace in houses before the widespread use of the refrigerator.Essential qualities of a larder are that it should be:...
s dug into the ice. There is a tradition in Scandinavia
Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
 of preserving fish
Fish (food)

Fish as food describes the edible parts of freshwater and seawater, poikilothermic vertebrates with gills. Shellfish, such as mollusks and crustaceans, are other edible water-dwelling animals that fall into the broadest category of fish....
 and especially herring
Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
s in this way.

Cold stores provide large-volume, long-term storage for strategic food stocks held in case of national emergency in many countries.

Seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s are stored in freezers at -18 °C or below in seedbank
Seedbank

A seedbank stores seeds as a source for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere are destroyed. It is a type of gene bank. The seeds stored may be food crops, or those of rare species to protect biodiversity....
s. The seeds are stored as a source for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere should be destroyed. The seeds stored may be those of food crops or rare species
Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems....
.

An increasingly popular form of home cooking involves preparing a month of meals to store in the home freezer. Once-a-month cooking helps cooks save money by purchasing grocery items in bulk and save time by cutting preparation time down considerably.

See also

  • Shelf life
    Shelf life

    Shelf life is that length of time that food, drink, medicine and other decomposition items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale or Eating....
  • TV Dinner
    TV dinner

    A TV dinner is a prepackaged, frozen or chilled meal which usually comes in an individual package. It requires very little preparation and contains all the elements for a single-serving meal....


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