In the times in which the Incas populated the world, their territory spanned over the Andean mountains. This means that they dealt with a cold climate making it hard for a reliable source of crops through the winter. With the invention of freeze drying in Inca society, it gave the Incas a way to have a steady source of food that was easy to store, transport, and was nourishing for the citizens and warriors or Inca.

The impact of freeze drying in the Inca civilization was major. Before the adoption of freeze drying and chuno, the Inca did not have a stable way to get food in the cold winter months up in the Andes. Though when they adopted chuno and in the late winter months when other crops failed and other sources of food were not sufficient chuno was readily there because of its availability to store and its properties of freeze drying. Freeze drying gave the potatoes extra nutritional values.

The process of freeze drying in ancient Inca was a multistep process. First you would closely spread the potatoes(most commonly freeze dried food  “chuno”) on the ground and are allowed to freeze over the freezing winter nights and dehydrate in the daytime. This process loops for about three days, then the potatoes are stepped on to make sure all moisture is eliminated. After which chuno is produced.

The adoption of freeze drying was historically important to the civilization and others around it because that's what kept the Incas going and was a major reliable source of food as in the golden age of the Inca civilization this was major because it helped in the expanding of the civilization since most of there territory was mountainous terrain.