But food also goes bad, so humans have invented many ways to preserve it to eat later or far from where it was harvested.

但食物會壞，所以人類發明了各式保存方式，以便日後享用或遠距離配送。

Some of these methods require unhealthy chemicals or degrade the food's nutritional value.

有些保存方式會用到不健康的化學物質，或是破壞食物原本的營養。

But, luckily, freezing can preserve food with most of its nutrients, well, frozen in place!

所幸，我們可以冷凍保存食物，凍住大部分營養。

The important part is that most chemical and biological processes run slower at lower temperatures.

重要的是，多數生物及化學變化在低溫下發展得較緩慢。

Which means that if you cool food a lot, enzymes and bacteria and fungi in the food get too cold to decompose it.

這表示如果你冷卻食物，食物中的酶、細菌、真菌就會因低溫較難分解食物。

That's why food lasts longer in the freezer than in the fridge, than on the counter.

這就是為何食物在冷凍庫中能存放最久，冷藏次之，最末則是檯面上。

Freezing, however, wasn't always an easy task, especially before fridges were invented.

然而，冷凍的概念在冰箱出現前，可不是件簡單的事。

It's not that freezing food is a new idea.

冷凍並不是新概念。

I mean, people who live in cold places have done it by default for thousands of years,

畢竟生活在寒冷地區的人早已行之千年之久。

but things got messy when we started creating artificial winter to freeze food in warmer climates.

但我們在溫熱帶地區創造出人工冬天冷藏食物後，事情才開始變得複雜起來。

Early freezers were basically rooms full of salty ice,

早期的冰箱，其實就是間充滿鹽和冰的窖室，

which, while they could freeze food, took many hours or even days to do so.

雖然可以冷凍食物，結凍時間卻長達數小時或數日之久。

A slow freeze gives fluid within cells the time to stack up into big ice crystals.

緩慢的冷凍時間會使細胞內液體結成較大的冰晶。

Since water expands when it freezes,

由於水在冰凍時會膨脹，

the sharp edges of these crystals poke holes through the walls of the cells,

冰的結晶尖端會穿破細胞壁，

and when the food thaws, the fluid leaks out.

導致食物解凍時，液體流出。

Gross!

噁心！

Even grosser?

想聽更噁心的嗎?

Birds eyes.

鳥的眼睛。

Clarence Birdseye, to be precise.

準確來說，是克拉倫·伯德西。

An American entrepreneur who lived in Arctic Canada in the nineteen-teens,

他是 19 世紀居住在加拿大極地區的美國人創業家。

Birdseye noticed that when Inuit people went ice fishing in minus 40 degree windy conditions,

他發現因紐特人在零下 40 度寒風中冰釣時，

their catch froze almost immediately.

獵物釣上來後，幾乎是立即冷凍。

When cooked later, the fish tasted fresh!

稍後煮後發現，魚的味道異常鮮美！

Birdseye realized that the arctic-frozen foods were tasty

伯德西發現極地食物可口的原因

because they froze quickly and formed smaller ice crystals that didn't damage the cells.

是因為急速冷凍冰晶較小，不會破壞細胞表面。

Inspired, he went on to develop a process to quickly freeze food

受此啟發，他研發了能快速冷卻食物的製程，

by pressing small packages between metal plates chilled to 40 below zero.

將小包裝放在零下 40 度的金屬平板間。

Combined with clever marketing,

結合巧妙的市場行銷，

this allowed Birdseye to bring arctic winter to the rest of the world

這讓伯德把如極地的冬日帶往世界各處，

and to almost single-handedly jumpstart the modern market for frozen foods.

並幾乎憑一己之力開啟了現代冷凍食品市場。

You probably even have your own freezer,

你可能也有自己的冷凍，

a marvelous device cold enough to quick-freeze almost any food you put in it.

這個神奇的裝置能將你放入的食物快速冷凍。

In other words, the North Pole, in your kitchen.

換言之，北極就在你家廚房！