# Can you freeze sweets?

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## Summary

You can, but most sweets do not need it and some suffer: chocolate can bloom and hard sweets go sticky as they thaw. Freeze dried sweets are different.

## Description

You can put sweets in the freezer, but there is rarely a good reason to. Most sweets already keep well at room temperature, because they contain so little free water that mould struggles to grow. And for some sweets, the trip into and out of the freezer does more harm than good.
Why sweets rarely need freezing
Freezing is a way to stop food spoiling: the government's guidance explains that bacteria cannot grow on frozen food. But most sweets are not at risk of that kind of spoiling in the first place. They are mostly sugar, and the less free water a food has, the fewer microorganisms can grow in it. A sealed container in a cool, dry cupboard does the job: see how should you store pick and mix?
The problem with thawing
The trouble comes when frozen sweets warm up again. Cold food taken into a warm room collects condensation, a film of moisture from the air.
Chocolate. Moisture on the surface of chocolate dissolves some of its sugar. When the moisture dries, the sugar forms larger crystals and leaves a dusty white layer called sugar bloom. Bloomed chocolate is still safe to eat, but it does not look or feel as good.Boiled sweets and rock. Sugar is hygroscopic, which means it pulls in moisture, so hard sweets that meet condensation turn tacky and can stick together: see why does seaside rock go soft?
If you do freeze sweets, keep them in a sealed container and let them come back to room temperature before you open it, so that any condensation forms on the outside of the container rather than on the sweets.
Starch jellies and the cold
Jellies set with starch age in a particular way. Cooked starch slowly recrystallises and hardens, a process called retrogradation, and it happens much faster between minus 8 and 8 degrees Celsius. That range covers the fridge and the time sweets spend cooling down and warming up: see why do jelly sweets go hard?
Freeze dried sweets are different
Freeze dried sweets are not simply frozen. Freeze drying is a way of drying food at low temperatures: the food is frozen, then the pressure is lowered so that the ice turns straight into vapour, without melting, a change called sublimation. It removes water in a very different way from heating.
Freeze dried sweets had a major surge in popularity in the United States in 2020, driven by social media, with freeze dried versions of sweets such as Skittles and SweeTarts appearing in shops. They are made in special machines, not in a kitchen freezer.

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