"Nancy Young" > wrote in

<stuff snipped>

> Does your mother have a refrigerator that is not frost free?

No.

> Perhaps that's the solution, get her a new one.

Perhaps it's not. Frost-free freezers cause far more freezer burn than
manual defrost ones because they actually have heating elements in them that
turn on at intervals to defrost the coils.

There are two distinct types of damage to frozen food that are typically
called "freezer burn." One type is often seen on the bottom of items on the
very bottom of a top-mounted freezer compartment because they are the
closest to the coil. The defrosting process can sometimes cause items on
the bottom to melt slightly and then refreeze with each defrost cycle, about
every six or eight hours.

A second type of "burn" happens because the process of melting the coil ice
also removes moisture from the air of a frost-free freezer. This makes
items that are not wrapped in moisture proof containers dry out much more
quickly than they would in manual defrost unit.

Didya ever wonder why ice cubes just seem to disappear if you leave them in
the tray too long? Well, "frost-free" is why. Ice cubes don't evaporate
like that in a manual freezer. The dehumidification process is also what
makes a clogged refrigerator whizz all over the floor when something goes
wrong (usually). There's no free lunch.

My concern that the old stuff be constantly rotated to the front and the new
stuff to the back is simple inventory management of perishables. First In,
First Out. I also want to make sure that things are rotated around so that
nothing spends too long a time on the bottom part of the freezer where the
frost-free heating elements are found.

To do that easily, I need some indication of when stuff came in. A nice
little freezer label with Oct7/5 or something like that is just what I need
to keep track of the freezer inventory. Using just a dry marker has
*really* helped cut down on food that has to be junked from freezer burn.

Thanks for you input. If you want to buy my Mom a new refrigerator, I'm all
for it. :-)

--
Bobby G.