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Question: Would it be possible to store foodstuffs at close to 0 Kelvin at scale, indefinitely? Cryopreservation for food instead of people? Which foodstuffs "s

Question: Would it be possible to store foodstuffs at close to 0 Kelvin at scale, indefinitely? Cryopreservation for food instead of people? Which foodstuffs "survive" long-term freezing? How large and economical could large-scale food cryopreservation be?

tstrimple 3y ago
Depends entirely on the foodstuffs in question. Rice can be kept for around 10 years at 70f if you control moisture. If you can control for oxygen, it can last even longer at temps well above freezing. Corn and soybeans are more sensitive to temperature than rice, but the major factor is still moisture and oxygen exposure. It reminds me a bit of the game Oxygen Not Included where early food storage techniques involve keeping it stored in an area saturated with CO2 to reduce the rate at which it rots before you have access to refrigeration.
TaylorAlexander 3y ago
I presume this would not be viable at the scale required for the people who need is most. (And zero kelvin is impractically cold)
brmgb 3y ago
Well, yes, it obviously is and there is no need to go that low. Don’t you have a freezer at your place? Technically food in a cold enough freezer will never get uneatable. It is indeed flash frozen to preserve its texture. The issue is that quality tends to get down with time due to water sublimation.
- gizmo686 3y ago
  Water sublimation stops at -80c, 193 kelvin. Flash freezing followed by long term storage in liquid nitrogen should be sufficient for preserving quality indefinitely. More practically, while sublimation hurts "quality", it does not harm the nutritional value of the food, so does not seem like that big of a deal in the context of famine policy. For rice it is even less of an issue, because rice is routinly stored dry and rehydrated when cooked.
blackoil 3y ago
Will preserved old rice tastes better than freshly harvested rice. Old rice is normally sold at a premium and preservation is much more simple.

tstrimple 3y ago

Depends entirely on the foodstuffs in question. Rice can be kept for around 10 years at 70f if you control moisture. If you can control for oxygen, it can last even longer at temps well above freezing. Corn and soybeans are more sensitive to temperature than rice, but the major factor is still moisture and oxygen exposure. It reminds me a bit of the game Oxygen Not Included where early food storage techniques involve keeping it stored in an area saturated with CO2 to reduce the rate at which it rots before you have access to refrigeration.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago

I presume this would not be viable at the scale required for the people who need is most. (And zero kelvin is impractically cold)

brmgb 3y ago

Well, yes, it obviously is and there is no need to go that low. Don’t you have a freezer at your place? Technically food in a cold enough freezer will never get uneatable. It is indeed flash frozen to preserve its texture. The issue is that quality tends to get down with time due to water sublimation.

gizmo686 3y ago
Water sublimation stops at -80c, 193 kelvin. Flash freezing followed by long term storage in liquid nitrogen should be sufficient for preserving quality indefinitely. More practically, while sublimation hurts "quality", it does not harm the nutritional value of the food, so does not seem like that big of a deal in the context of famine policy. For rice it is even less of an issue, because rice is routinly stored dry and rehydrated when cooked.

blackoil 3y ago

Will preserved old rice tastes better than freshly harvested rice. Old rice is normally sold at a premium and preservation is much more simple.