1. Storage of Raw Fruits and Vegetables: It is well-known that some bacteria are responsible for degradation of food, and enzymatic processing cause ripening of the fruits and vegetables. The growth of bacteria and the rate of enzymatic processes are reduced at low temperature. This helps in reducing the spoilage and improving the shelf life of the food. Table below shows useful storage life of some plant and animal tissues at various temperatures.

It can be seen that the storage temperature affects the useful storage life significantly. In general the storage life of most of the food products depends upon water activity, which essentially depends upon the presence of water in liquid form in the food product and its temperature. Hence, it is possible to preserve various food products for much longer periods under frozen conditions.

In case of fruits and vegetables, the use of refrigeration starts right after harvesting to remove the post-harvest heat, transport in refrigerated transport to the cold storage or the processing plant. A part of it may be stored in cold storage to maintain its sensory qualities and a part may be distributed to retail shops, where again refrigeration is used for short time storage. Depending upon the size, the required capacity of refrigeration plants for cold storages can be very high. Ammonia is one of the common refrigerants used in cold storages.

2. Fish: Icing of fish according to ASHRAE Handbook on Applications, started way back in 1938. In India, iced fish is still transported by rail and road, and retail stores store it for short periods by this method. Freezing of fish aboard the ship right after catch results in better quality than freezing it after the ship docks. In some ships, it is frozen along with seawater since it takes months before the ships return to dock. Long-term preservation of fish requires cleaning, processing and freezing.

3. Meat and poultry: These items also require refrigeration right after slaughter during processing, packaging. Short-term storage is done at 0°C. Long-term storage requires freezing and storage at -25°C.

4. Dairy Products: The important dairy products are milk, butter, buttermilk and ice cream. To maintain good quality, the milk is cooled in bulk milk coolers immediately after being taken from cow. Bulk milk cooler is a large refrigerated tank that cools it between 10 to 15°C. Then it is transported to dairy farms, where it is pasteurized. Pasteurization involves heating it to 73°C and holding it at this temperature for 20 seconds. Thereafter, it is cooled to 3 to 4°C. The dairies have to have a very large cooling capacity, since a large quantity of milk has to be immediately cooled after arrival. During the lean period, the refrigeration plants of dairies are used to produce ice that is used during peak periods to provide cooling by melting. This reduces the required peak capacity of the refrigeration plant.

Ice cream manufacture requires pasteurization, thorough mixing, emulsification and stabilization and subsequently cooling to 4 to 5°C. Then it is cooled to temperature of about – 5 °C in a freezer where it stiffens but still remains in liquid state. It is packaged and hardened at –30 to –25°C until it becomes solid; and then it is stored at same temperature.

Buttermilk, curd and cottage cheese are stored at 4 to 10°C for increase of shelf life. Use of refrigeration during manufacture of these items also increases their shelf life. There are many varieties of cheese available these days. Adding cheese starter like lactic acid and several substances to the milk makes all of these. The whey is separated and solid part is cured for a long time at about 10°C to make good quality cheese.

5. Beverages: Production of beer, wine and concentrated fruit juices require refrigeration. The taste of many drinks can be improved by serving them cold or by adding ice to them. This has been one of the favourite past time of aristocracy in all the countries. Natural or man-made ice for this purpose has been made available since a very long time. Fruit juice concentrates have been very popular because of low cost, good taste and nutritional qualities. Juices can be preserved for a longer period of time than the fruits. Also, fruit juice concentrates when frozen can be more easily shipped and transported by road. Orange and other citrus juices, apple juice, grape juice and pineapple juice are very popular. To preserve the taste and flavour of juice, the water is driven out of it by boiling it at low temperature under reduced pressure. The concentrate is frozen and transported at –20°C.

Brewing and wine making requires fermentation reaction at controlled temperature, for example lager-type of beer requires 8 to 12°C while wine requires 27- 30°C. Fermentation is an exothermic process; hence heat has to be rejected at controlled temperature.

6. Candy: Use of chocolate in candy or its coating with chocolate requires setting at 5-10°C otherwise it becomes sticky. Further, it is recommended that it be stored at low temperature for best taste.

7. Processing and distribution of frozen food: Many vegetables, meat, fish and poultry are frozen to sustain the taste, which nearly duplicates that of the fresh product. Freezing retains the sensory qualities of colour, texture and taste apart from nutritional qualities. The refrigeration systems for frozen food applications are very liberally designed, since the food items are frozen in shortest period of time. The sharp freezing with temperature often below –30°C, is done so that the ice crystals formed during freezing do not get sufficient time to grow and remain small and do not pierce the cell boundaries and damage them. Ready-to-eat frozen foods, packed dinners and bakery items are also frozen by this method and stored at temperatures of –25 to -20°C for distribution to retail stores during peak demands or off-season demands.