Dry ice · Food
Dry ice for food transport and storage
The reason dry ice runs the cold chain: it keeps food deeply frozen, leaves no meltwater, and protects dry goods from moisture and pests — all without a power source. Here’s how it works, what to know, and how to use it safely.
How dry ice aids food transport and storage
Ordinary ice has a problem: it melts. As it warms it turns to water, which pools in the box, soaks the packaging, and can compromise both the safety and the look of the food. Dry ice doesn’t do that. Because it sublimates — passing straight from solid to gas — it cools without ever becoming liquid. The result is food that stays deeply frozen, in dry packaging, from origin to destination.
That makes it the backbone of cold-chain food shipping. A box packed with dry ice can hold frozen temperatures for the length of a multi-day transit, with no meltwater touching the product and no power source required. It’s how frozen meat, seafood, ice cream, prepared meals, and perishable specialty foods travel by ground and by air. When the food needs a temperature-controlled truck on top of that, our refrigerated freight service moves it.
Preserving dry goods with dry ice
Dry ice isn’t only for frozen food. For dry goods — grains, flour, beans, pet food, and other shelf-stable staples — a small amount placed in a sealed-but-vented container before closing it displaces the oxygen as it sublimates. With less oxygen in the container, insects and their eggs can’t survive and oxidation slows, so the product stays fresher longer without chemicals. It’s a long-standing method for protecting bulk dry storage from pests and spoilage. (Always leave the container able to vent the gas — never seal it fully airtight.)
Essential dry ice facts
- It’s frozen carbon dioxide at −78.5 °C (−109 °F) — far colder than a household freezer.
- It sublimates rather than melts, so there’s never any liquid or meltwater.
- It’s food-safe and widely used to ship and store frozen and refrigerated food.
- It’s temporary — it loses roughly 5 to 10 pounds per 24 hours, so quantity is sized to transit time.
- It needs ventilation — the gas it gives off displaces oxygen, so it’s never sealed airtight or used in a small closed space.
RS Group: your trusted dry ice supplier
RS Group supplies dry ice from our 80,000 sq ft Atlanta warehouse — in slices and blocks, from a 25 lb order up to 50,000 pounds for a full cold-chain load. Because we also ship with dry ice every day, we size each order to your real transit time and packaging, so the product arrives still frozen rather than gassed off — and we handle the DOT requirements when it travels as freight. One operator, the supply and the shipping, with a real person who answers.
A word of caution
Dry ice is safe when it’s handled correctly, and genuinely hazardous when it isn’t. Always handle it with insulated gloves — direct skin contact causes frostbite-like burns. Never seal it in an airtight container, including a sealed cooler or a closed vehicle — the gas it releases builds pressure and can rupture the container. Only use it in a well-ventilated space, since in a small, enclosed room the released CO₂ displaces breathable oxygen. Keep it away from children and pets, and don’t store it in a household freezer. Used with these basics in mind, it’s clean, safe, and one of the best tools there is for keeping food cold.
At a glance
Solid carbon dioxide at −78.5 °C (−109 °F).
Goes straight from solid to gas — no liquid, no meltwater.
Widely used to ship and store frozen and refrigerated food.
Loses roughly 5–10 lbs per 24 hrs depending on packaging.
Shipping or storing food with dry ice?
Tell us the product, the quantity, and the transit time — a real person sizes the dry ice, advises on packing, and gets it to you frozen and food-safe.