Chilled food technology has had a very significant impact on the types of food eaten by consumers during the 1980s and 1990s. This method of food preservation has satisfied the desires of people for safe, reliable, fresh products providing convenience despite the limited shelf-life. This introduction reviews the definition, range and market size of chilled food and indicates trends for the L1 Definition Foods distributed under refrigeration and sold from refrigerator cabinets have been available for many years. Although there were many new chilled product