I'm guessing freezing might kill the kefir grains, but in some milk in the fridge mine have stayed good for up to nearly six weeks while I was gone. Some organic brands of cream in regular grocery stores near me don't have the carrageenan but of course cost more. Speaking of Costco, they sell the organic stuff by the half gallon. My guess is they didn't challenge the erroneous claim of coconut oil being unhealthy because proving it would have cost a lot more money and time than just settling, giving the complainers some money to make them happy and go away.