Samples of bovine muscle (post rigor) were frozen at different temperatures between -5 degrees and -196 degrees C at different freezing rates, and thawed at room temperature. The activities of the mitochondrial enzymes lipoamide dehydrogenase, citrate synthase and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA-dehydrogenase were determined in the supernatant of the tissue homogenates in phosphate buffer (total enzyme activity), as well as in the press juice of the intact tissue (enzyme activity in the sarcoplasma). Neither the temperature nor the rate of freezing (varying from 25.5 to 0.01 min/degrees C) showed a significant influence on the total enzyme activities. Freezing at -5 degrees and -10 degrees C (at different rates but without intracellular freezing) and thawing did not result in an appreciable release of enzymes. Below -10 degrees C the release of the three enzymes from their binding to the inner membrane of the mitochondrion into the sarcoplasmic fluid increased upon rapid freezing with decreasing temperature i.e. with increasing intracellular ice formation, whereas at slow freezing (with extracellular ice formation only) freezing below -20 degrees C did not cause further enzyme release. At freezing temperatures below -20 degrees C rapid freezing resulted in a significantly stronger release of the three enzymes than slow freezing. From these results it was concluded that the damage to mitochondrial membranes upon fast freezing is primarily a result of intracellular (and perhaps also intramitochondrial) ice formation, whereas the membrane damage during slow freezing is primarily due to dehydration caused by the migration of water from the muscle fibers into the extracellular space as a result of osmotic effects. Ion concentration in the nonfreezing fraction of tissue water seems to be only of minor importance for the disintegration of mitochondrial membranes.