Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves

by Nicola Twilley

beef carcasses have to be electrocuted in order to withstand the rigors of refrigeration without toughening up.

the bag itself is a highly engineered respiratory apparatus, designed in layers of differentially semipermeable films to slow spinach, arugula, and endive metabolism and extend their shelf lives.

The United States already boasts an estimated 5.5 billion cubic feet of refrigerated space—a third polar region of sorts. This is an almost unimaginably large volume: the tallest mountain on Earth, Everest, occupies only roughly two-thirds that amount of space from base to peak.

With unfortunate irony, the spread of the artificial cryosphere turns out to be one of the leading culprits in the disappearance of its natural counterpart.

Honeywell produce a special range of barcode sensors and laptops equipped with internal heaters and screen defrosters. At minus twenty and below, tape doesn’t stick properly, rubber becomes brittle, cardboard is stiffer—and all those minor obstacles seem more like insurmountable challenges to a cold-slowed brain.

“umbles”: the underdressed or overexposed individual starts to grumble, mumble, fumble, and stumble. “Cold stupid” is mountaineering slang for the way that thought processes congeal after spending too long at a low temperature.

warm-blooded marine predators such as seals and whales tend to cluster in the coolest parts of the ocean, not because they find the chill congenial but rather because, under those conditions, their piscine prey is “slow, stupid, and cold”—and thus easier to catch.

Like natural fibers, bread and cheese have a tendency to absorb the odors to which they’re exposed, as does ice cream, which can’t even be stored in the same room as the pizzas.

“Ice cream’s a whole different level of complexity,” said Espinoza. “It’s mostly air, so you can’t stack it because it will compress.”[*3]

nonpremium brands, a pint of ice cream is, on average, 50 percent air. This leads to all sorts of logistical complications. National brands of ice cream have to use different formulations for different regions to take into account the thinner air at higher elevations. “You can’t truck it from Washington to Georgia,” Espinoza told me. “The Rockies,” he explained, shaking his head.