REFRIGERATION AND FREEZING OF

FOODS

Refrigeration slows down the chemical and biological processes in foods and
the accompanying deterioration and the loss of quality. The storage life of fresh
perishable foods such as meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables can be extended by several
days by cooling, and by several weeks or months by freezing.
Food refrigeration and freezing are the modern methods of choice for
preserving food. Most often refrigeration has positive results; the food keeps safe for
long, nevertheless, sometimes the unexpected happens. For example, refrigerated
bananas and a variety of vegetables develop black marks; tomatoes turn soggy, frozen
meat turn brown and even some foods go bad
Refrigeration and freezing are techniques used for preserving food in low
temperatures. These procedures slow down or stop most bacteria from dividing and
thereby multiplying, but do not kill them.

 HOW DOES REFRIGERATION PRESERVE FOOD?

Spoilage bacteria thrive well in high temperatures ranging from room
temperature to 40 °C but, do poorly in cold temperatures.
Refrigeration provides low temperatures that slow reproduction, multiplication
and growth of spoilage, pathogenic and poison producing bacteria.
Refrigeration does not kill the bacteria!
 WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF REFRIGERATION AND
FREEZING?
The use of cold storage to preserve food dates back to pre-historic ages. Ancient man
discovered that his hunted game meat could be stored in coolness of caves or covered with
snow for the time of scarcity
Before the first millennium, Chinese, Romans, Hebrews and Greek harvested ice and
stored it in pits on the ground insulated with wood or straw for food preservation
Jacob Perkins developed the first practical refrigerator machine in London in 1834 by
using ether as a refrigerant
In 1897, William Singer of New York patented the earliest automatic electric unit for
small scale refrigeration. From then on refrigeration evolved into what we have today,
domestic, commercial and transport refrigeration systems.

 HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP FOOD IN THE FREEZER?

As a general rule, nothing should be kept in the freezer for longer than nine months to
a year, but there is variation among different food items.

Here’s the maximum of time you can keep certain foods frozen before thawing:

Poultry 1 year
Steak 1 year
Blanched Vegetables 1 year
Fruit in syrup 1 year
White Fish 8 months
Open packs of frozen fruit 8 months
Unsalted Butter 8 months
Fruit Juice 6 months
Lamb/pork/beef/chicken/turkey/duck/goose/venison/rabbi 6 months
Bread 6 months
Cakes 6 months
Stocks 6 months
Oily fish 6 months
Pastries 4 months
 Salted Butter 4 months
Ice Cream 4 months
Sliced Bacon 3 months
Sopus and Sauces 3 months
Bread Dough 3 months