WHAT IS FLASH FREEZING?

Flash freezing refers to objects frozen almost instantaneously when exposed to extremely low temperatures.

In the food industry, this is most commonly achieved by direct contact with liquid nitrogen which has a temperature of at least -160°C (-320.8°F), but can be colder.

This 'effect is used in the food industry to preserve items - ranging from berries and mushrooms to chunks of chicken - as it causes water to evaporate extremely rapidly.

This stops the formation of ice crystals, which can damage food and cause it to degrade over time in regular freezers.   

Flash freezing techniques are also used to freeze biological samples fast enough that large ice crystals cannot form and damage the sample, using liquid nitrogen or a mixture of dry ice and ethanol.