My family bought me a bunch of bread and chicken and told me to put it in the freezer, I wonder how that works, please eli5!
In: Chemistry
Food spoils when microorganisms in it eat parts of the food and create harmful chemicals. In the freezer, those microorganisms slow waaaaaay down or just stop entirely, greatly extending the amount of time it takes for the food to spoil.
Food doesn’t just magically “go bad.”
What’s really happening is that if you don’t eat it, something else will. Various micro-organisms: bacteria, mold, fungus, bugs, etc. will happily use your food to grow and procreate.
The freezer is too cold for these critters to actively survive. Some of them may still be present, but they won’t grow and spread so long as they’re frozen.
Tangential, this is also why we cook things, especially meats. The heat kills these critters that would otherwise make us sick. You may have heard “internal temperature of 160F.” That’s how hot foot needs to be to kill the critters.
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