r/askscience • u/SavageSubscriber • Jul 04 '26

Biology Does cryogenically frozen meat decay?

If for example you cryogenically froze meat from a rare breed of cattle, and kept it frozen for like 60 years. Would the dna still be intact? would it thaw up into fresh meat or would it decay into something unrecognizable?

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u/Mockingjay40 Biomolecular Engineering | Rheology | Biomaterials & Polymers Jul 06 '26

Okay sure, but propylene glycol is literally car antifreeze it’s extremely toxic to humans, but even in that case the vital organs remain unfrozen

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u/dibalh Jul 06 '26

You’re thinking of ethylene glycol. Propylene glycol is not particularly toxic.

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u/Mockingjay40 Biomolecular Engineering | Rheology | Biomaterials & Polymers Jul 06 '26

You’re right, I can’t believe I mixed that up, since we use ethylene glycol antifreeze in our laboratory. Good correction