As you may already know, you must eat fruits and vegetables for good health. But what if your favorite fruits are not in season, or the vegetables that you bought won't be cooked until a few days later? It might be time to favor frozen fruits and vegetables.
Going frozen means that you can enjoy your favorite fruits even if they are not in season. It also means that there is less spoilage, allowing you to enjoy produce when it is close to its nutritional best. A research has revealed that frozen fruits and vegetables have many vitamins as compared to fresh ones.
"In terms of the ways humans have come up with preserving foods, freezing comes up at the top for preserving nutrients," said study author Ali Bouzari, who is a culinary scientist and author of "Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food." "If you can't afford fresh or live in an area where a bodega down the street is all the access to produce you can get, it's important for people to know that frozen is a viable alternative."
Freezing is the best way to preserve vitamins and beneficial plant compounds that can help protect against diseases, explained Mary Ann Lila, the director of the Plants for Human Health Institute at North Carolina State University.
Frozen fruits and vegetables are a worthwhile choice if you are not going to eat them within a day or two, explained Gene Lester, a plant physiologist and national program leader for the US Department of Agriculture, where he checks all post-harvest animal and plant foods research.
"Frozen fruits are commercially picked at the peak of ripeness and then individually quick frozen and packaged under a nitrogen atmosphere," Lester said.
Exposing fruits and vegetables to nitrogen can help preserve the nutrients that oxygen degrades, and it also occurs with some fresh vegetables. Vegetables that are intended to be frozen are also picked at peak ripeness, they are blanched prior to freezing where they are exposed to hot water temperatures between 90 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which destroys enzymes that cause browning, discoloration, and loss of flavor.
"Blanching keeps the bright green colors fairly bright green once they've been frozen and in storage -- otherwise they can take on a grayish or brownish look," Lester said. Blanching also changes the structure of the fiber, making vegetables softer and less crunchy, and easier to chew.
The disadvantage of blanching is that you can lose up to 50% of vitamin C because it is heat-sensitive.
The good news is, like fruits, vegetables can be frozen are typically picked at their peak ripeness, where they are most nutrient dense, as compared to those that are intended to be sold fresh, which are picked at a less mature, less nutrient-dense stage in order to last longer during transport and storage.
Vegetables that are soon-to-be frozen are starting out with a good nutritional advantage, which battles any nutrient losses during blanching and it would still rank higher nutritionally compared to those that are commercially fresh.
"From a commercial standpoint, you definitely have a more nutrient-dense product than something that has likely been picked, refrigerated, then put on a truck for up to three days, then stored in a warehouse ... before arriving at a grocery store for a few days," Lester said.
