1. The benefits of cold preservation

Food preservation techniques, which made it possible to move production and consumption areas farther apart, enabled and accompanied the development of civilization and city life (see box). They formed the basis of the agri-food sector, which is now the leading industrial sector in a country like France, with sales of FRF 757 billion in 1996 and added value representing 33% of industrial added value (FRF 217 billion out of 656), exceeding that of agriculture (FRF 182 billion).

Unlike destructive methods that profoundly alter the food's characteristics, such as dehydration, salting, coagulation and cooking, or more recent methods such as pasteurization and sterilization, cold is the first food preservation technique that preserves the original qualities of the food.

Most foodstuffs contain biological or biochemical phenomena: respiration,...