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Why Freezer Temperature - 18
Why Freezer Temperature - 18
https://blog.liebherr.com/appliances/my/ideal-freezer-temperature/
Food producers recommend -18°C as the ideal temperature for frozen food. Read
on to discover why so, and what the American Fruit and Vegetable coalition had
to do with this.
Do you still remember buying your first ever refrigerator or freezer? When I bought my first
freezer, a few years back, I received the full-on sales pitch during which all the fantastic
features of my new freezer-to-be were praised in the most exaggerated way imaginable and
I was told that the freezer temperature should ideally be set to -18°C. On my asking why -
18°C was the magic temperature, the sales consultant was bewildered – unable to give an
answer, and so, I set about finding out the answer to this question myself…
Initially, at the outset of modern freezing, -10°C was regarded as the safe temperature for
storing frozen food. However, as we discovered more and more about the nature and
benefits of freezing, lower temperatures were recognised as being more suitable. In the late
1930s, the American Fruit and Vegetable coalition advocated that a freezing temperature of
0°F (equivalent to -17.8°C) be maintained, largely on the basis that 0°F was a nice round
number, rather than for any specific scientific reasons. It was quite some time later that the
rounded temperature of -18°C became accepted as the standard food freezing temperature
in Europe.
The colder the storage environment, the better the quality of the frozen food. However,
because maintaining lower temperatures involves greater energy usage, -18°C represents an
optimum compromise between food quality and energy consumption.