Antarctic Ice

The next time you’re sitting down to ‘chicken, chips, peas or ice-cream’ this article provides a fascinating insight into how these foodstuffs are sitting in a massive fridge in Cambridgeshire with Antartic ice! Scientists at the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have been shipping back samples from the Antarctic Peninsula for 35 years, but with limited space in their own chilled laboratories the best option for halting the melting process is a cold storage warehouse. Here, samples share space with groceries destined for supermarket freezers. The warehouse on an industrial estate in Peterborough marks the end of a journey that begins about 15,000km (9,300 miles) away. Laboratory manager Emily Ludlow said: “Peterborough is storing all our ice at the moment. We’re definitely sharing it with frozen chips, frozen chicken, frozen peas and all sorts of ice cream”