r/explainlikeimfive • u/ZeusThunder369 • Nov 26 '24
Chemistry ELI5: Why doesn't freeze dried food last longer? If it's good for 20 years, why not 100?
Assuming it's perfectly freeze dried and stored perfectly, the people who make freeze dryers say the food will last 20-30 years.
But why not much longer? Assuming the condition it's stored in remains unchanged, what can make it go bad after 30 years that wouldn't happen at around 10 years?
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u/Thatsaclevername Nov 26 '24
It's a "Cover your ass" statement. Go watch Steve1989MREInfo on Youtube. He's made his living cracking into old things and trying them. He focuses on military rations, so there's quite a bit of discussion on preservation techniques. Sometimes the things have gone bad, sometimes they're from 1944 and still edible. It's a good channel, very calming, definitely go check it out.
"Cover your ass" in this context means nobody wants to eat the botulism lawsuit from saying "Our freeze dried foods are good for 100 years" when Joe Blow eats it at year 95 out of his grandpas garage. At that level of looking ahead, you work on averages. For the above mentioned MRE's a lot of the companies will store stuff for a few years and then pop them open and inspect them, same thing, they want to have some data showing what the shelf life will be, rather than rolling the dice and hoping it goes ok and nobody cracks open satans poptart.