openmic.social is an uncensored community. You may encounter strong language, controversial opinions, and mature or NSFW material. You must be 18+ to browse. Illegal content is prohibited and removed on sight — please report it. By continuing, you accept that you may see content you personally disagree with.
Why would something deep frozen need to be wrapped in individual plastic wraps?
To prevent freezer burn?
I have lived my whole life without seeing single wrappers or worrying about “freezer burn”. Do you mean feeling cold when you touch something that’s cold? Even when pouring a liquor that’s been in the freezer it hurts in the moment but it’s nowhere near an actual burn
You’ve never experienced freezer burn? It’s not when it feels too cold to touch.
Freezer burn is when “unwrapped” food in the freezer gets ice crystalized all over it. It turns the texture into a disgusting mess when it’s cooked…overly chewy and even messes with the taste.
It happens more often when food has been opened and then placed in the freezer for a prolonged period of time.
I say unwrapped because it doesn’t necessarily mean just open without a container. Like for example I have a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer. The bag has a re-closable ziplock type closure. However, sometimes over time, if I’ve opened and re-closed the bag, sometimes some of the remaining nugs get freezer burned.
If you’re using up said bag of nuggets relatively quickly, then it’s not a concern. But if you’re only having nuggets once and a while, then freezer burn is more likely to happen.
Can’t say I’ve heard the term before, no. Also not something I recall experiencing, I usually close bags with a clip or elastic band and most of the time they don’t last for more than a couple of meals anyway, but I can see how that could happen if you have family-sized ones
From what I have read, ice is a lot less stable than we usually think. Over time the moisture in food will migrate out and form crystals on the surface leaving the food item dehydrated. It’s more or less the same principle they use for freeze drying.
If you ever find crystals on top of your ice cream, it’s the same thing happening.
It’s also made much worse by defrost cycles. During a freezer defrost cycle the air temp in the freezer will often get above freezing. It shouldn’t be above freezing for very long but it can be long enough for the surface of food to thaw very slightly and then refreeze again. This is why food lasts longer in old school chest freezers. Those freezers don’t have any automatic defrost so food isn’t repeatedly slightly thawing and refreezing.
Chest freezers also don’t lose nearly as much cold air when opened compared to upright.
Yeah if you’re using them up that quick, you’re not likely to really come across it which is good!
So that they’re not frozen into a single mass of filets when all you want is one or two.