permaculture

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Freezer burn is mostly dehydration and it is not necessary to have storage 
above zero degrees. I have seen plenty of freezer burn in flash frozen fish 
that is then further kept at -21 C. Water always moves to the coldest place 
and in a freezer that is the cool unit and not the fish or meat in the 
center. Without precautions the outside layers of food will dry out in a 
freezer and that is irreversible in fish or meat.
It can easily be prevented by "glazing". This is coating the food with a 
layer of water (ice) during freezing. This is often much handier than 
wrapping every item individually in plastic.
And dry ice would not cause freezer burn in grains or seeds but it might 
make a plastic bucket brittle.
john

> Lawrence, what do you think would cause freezer burn from dry ice?
>
> From my reading the cause of freezer burn is primarily dehydration and
> secondarily oxidation, along with storage at temperatures above 0
> degrees F. Very cold local temperatures don't seem to have much if
> anything to do with it. A large part of the cure for meat is apparently
> wrapping to prevent dehydration. With grain I doubt there would be much
> of a problem with dry ice. I would expect exclusion of oxygen to be 
> helpful.
>
> If the Mormons recommend dry ice as Bob Waldrop says, their
> recommendation is probably based on a lot of practical experience. I
> would be inclined to take their word for it.
>
> Doug Woodard
> St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
>
>
> On 10/31/2011 4:55 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > This sounds like the best way but unless some food-grade
> > insulating barrier were put on top of the dry ice then beans or grain in
> > direct contact with it might get "freezer burn" causing rot and eventual
> > contamination of the whole container of dried food. Could this happen?
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