Storage Conditions and Distribution:

Vegetables and Fruits should be frozen rapidly after harvesting and meats frozen rapidly after slaughter to maintain good quality. Truckload and railcar-load lots are then shifted to refrigerated warehouses where they are stock up at - 20 to - 23°C, possibly for several months. To maintain a good quality in fish, the storage temperature is even lower.

Food shift from the refrigerated warehouses to food markets as required replenishing the store there. In the market the food is stock up refrigerated in display cases held at 3 to 5°C for dairy products, unfrozen vegetables and fruits. Frozen foods & ice cream are kept at about - 200. In the United States approximate 100,000 refrigerated display cases are sold out each year.

Finally the consumer stocks up the food in a domestic refrigerator or freezer till utilized. Five million domestic refrigerators are sold out each year in the United States, and for many decades styling and first cost were supreme considerations in the design and construction of domestic refrigerators. The requirement for energy conservation, through, has brought back the engineering challenge in designing these appliances.