why frozen food expires
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Frozen food is prepared and packaged for consumer use and for profitability. Excellent containment is not consumer-friendly, and packaging that is economical and consumer-friendly is not excellent for long-term storage.
It’s less that the food itself expires, and more that the quality of the food will not be vouched for after a reasonable amount of time.
It technically doesn’t expires. Frozen food can’t rot like food at lower temperature since any bacteria would be killed by the low temperature. So frozen food will remain safe for consumption.
That said even if frozen food can’t rot, other physical things can happen. Freezer burn is what happen when because of sublimation of the moisture of the food. The frozen water inside the food become water vapor and leave the food. The food become dehydrated, it damage the molecules of the food and typical it taste really bad.
The food end up tasting bad, but it doesn’t expires. That said, there is ways to protect food from freeze burn, it’s just that those methods are usually a big more complex and expensive and most people don’t bother with them.
If it’s actually kept properly frozen for that whole time, it’s still safe to eat. It just might not be as flavorful and the texture will not be great after that long – so it’s really more of a “best by” date for when you can expect the product to taste the best.
Food goes bad through microbial growth and chemical degradation.
Frozen food should not have any microbial growth, but it will have chemical degradation. Over time the chemicals that make it taste the way it tastes break down and the flavor is lost.
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