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Paper short abstract:

This paper accounts for the antagonism between the imported Norwegian natural ice and the French locally manufactured ice during the long nineteenth century. It discusses how the two products got embroiled in heated debates over their safety for consumption and use in the French food industry.

Paper long abstract:

Norwegian natural ice blocks were regularly shipped to numerous French ports between 1870 and 1920. The peak of this trade overlapped chronologically with the emergence of refrigeration technology in France in the last decade of the nineteenth century. This paper accounts for the antagonism between Norwegian natural ice and the French manufactured ice during that period. It showcases how the two products got embroiled in heated debates over their hygienic qualities and safety for consumption, driven by the new realities in the field of public health, the rise of bacteriology and emerging trends in food hygiene.

Employing a diverse set of primary sources and drawing from Douglas’ Purity and Danger (1966) and Fischler’s (1988) notion of neophobie, the fear attached to a newly introduced food product, this paper showcases how refrigerated and/or frozen food was deemed impure and taboo in nineteenth century French gastronomic culture which prioritized freshness. As food technologies are currently having an unprecedented growth while facing up numerous controversies relating to quality and suitability for consumption, this paper stresses the need to rethink food insecurities in the long nineteenth century and how they unfolded. It argues that what was termed in some French refrigeration journals as frigoriphobie, the fear of the frozen produce, was in fact enabling the continuing success of Norwegian ice imports into France, forcing French refrigeration to baby steps well until after the War.