Does food lose its spiciness if you freeze it?

[Callipygous]

my mom makes this really awesome pork chili. when she makes it she always makes surplus so we can freeze it and have it for leftovers later. the thing is, when i reheat the frozen stuff it seems to have almost completely lost its spiciness. its no longer hot, its like thick soup instead of chili. is there some explaination for this?

[Silencer]

Breakdown of the capsaicin?

 

Just heat it up and throw in some chili pepper.

[YT2095]

the capsiacin should remain perfectly ok, but what WILL happen (and you`ve part explained it yourself) is that on freezing and thawing again, there`s alot of contraction and expansion taking place, making the food more "Even" and homogenous. the spices are still there, but will have penetrated deeper into the foods in there. this method is also used in conjunction with a vacuum industrialy to impregnate foods with marinades and colorings in a very short space of time, whereas your mom and I would leave it in the fridge for 24 hours (time is money for these mass producers).

 

Silencer is right when he says just add more chili and re-heat, that`s about all you can do