What happens to frozen foods before they are frozen ?

[Pepper Pot]

I've never really thought about it until today when my mum asked me...

but how do they get frozen? do they just put the live mice in the freezer?... or pre-kill them? if so how do they kill them?


sorry if this thread seams pointless or has already been asked but I'm curious


Peter

[repkid]

I think that put a pencil on the rat/mouse's neck and pull it's tail up severing the spinal cord and killing it instantly.

[Ssthisto]

The frozen mice you buy will have been euthanised using Carbon Dioxide before being flash-frozen in a commercial freezer.

They are NOT just put straight into the freezer alive; that would be animal cruelty and wouldn't be very efficient. The only way freezing could be done without cruelty is if they were dunking the rodents' heads into liquid nitrogen or similar - instant death, but not time and cost effective. Much easier to just have a CO2 chamber.

No, they don't get a rat, put a pencil and pull, every two seconds for eight hours a day.... they do it in batches of dozens or hundreds.

[jamesandnina]

i've seen pin pricks in pinkies heads before

[Ssthisto]

Isn't that more likely to be an artifact of the freezing process?

Again, I can't imagine some guy (let's call him Steve) in the Frozen Mouse Factory with a pin and hundreds of pinkies to process every day...

Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Oh, hai, Steve - going for a tea break, you coming?
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.

[longhaircavies]

Originally Posted by Ssthisto

Isn't that more likely to be an artifact of the freezing process?

Again, I can't imagine some guy (let's call him Steve) in the Frozen Mouse Factory with a pin and hundreds of pinkies to process every day...

Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Oh, hai, Steve - going for a tea break, you coming?
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.

I have to say that made me chuckle.

[Serious D]

Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.
Oh, hai, Steve - going for a tea break, you coming?
Pick up pink, poke with pin, plonk in tray.

[ern79]

i do wonder when i get my frozen deliveries, some times they look nice and serene others there is blood all over their faces, surely frozen suppliers arent bashing thousnads of mice over the heads?

[Pepper Pot]

thanks guys was just wondering really.

it's just my mum feels sad for them lol and she pictures them suffering in the freezer and I knew there must have been a reasonable explanation to the process which wasn't cruel to the animal.

Peter

[Ssthisto]

Originally Posted by ern79

i do wonder when i get my frozen deliveries, some times they look nice and serene others there is blood all over their faces, surely frozen suppliers arent bashing thousnads of mice over the heads?

No, the blood on their faces usually means that blood vessels burst in the freezing process - which is normal because water expands as it freezes, just like pipes burst if they freeze in winter - and that something has happened since to allow the blood to thaw out enough to run out of the nose/mouth/eyes.

I don't really like using the bloody ones because I always suspect they've been at least partially defrosted and refrozen at least once. It is the case that incorrectly used CO2 euthanasia will cause bleeding from the nose and mouth, but I don't think that's going to be the majority of cases.

Originally Posted by Pepper Pot

thanks guys was just wondering really.

it's just my mum feels sad for them lol and she pictures them suffering in the freezer and I knew there must have been a reasonable explanation to the process which wasn't cruel to the animal.

I don't blame your mum, sometimes the poses you get frozen rodents in are dreadful. I get the "macarena", "disco" and "ymca" poses a lot

Generally speaking, though, CO2 euthanasia sends them to sleep then kills them - it's one of the few humane ways of killing a rodent that leaves it edible.

Pick up pink, poke with pin, put in tray.
Hey, Steve, get out of my house!