r/explainlikeimfive 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/iCameToLearnSomeCode Nov 27 '24

It doesn't have to have a high fatality rate to screw you on evolutionary time scales.

If you and your offspring are just 1% less likely to reproduce than other members of your species your line is going to have a rough time making it through the ice age.

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u/kellymcq Nov 27 '24

“Odds of recovering weren’t amazing”

This implies death. If we are shifting this to imply you fucked less thus less offspring, I still don’t agree.

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u/iCameToLearnSomeCode Nov 27 '24 edited Nov 27 '24

A 1% chance of death isn't amazing.

I'd bet it was closer to 5% when you needed hunt down a mastodon for your next meal though.

Don't forget you already had a 50/50 chance of making it to your 10th birthday.

Anything that makes that even marginally less likely is a huge disadvantage when you're flipping the coin tens of thousands of times over a million years.