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fresh vs frozen
DaisyBumbleroot
01-08-2008
i always buy my fruit and veg from the fresh produce section in the supermarket, often the stuff thats been marked down to eat that night, but i heard that the older it is the more nutrients it has lost and frozen veg is better.

Does anyone know how much better? Is the amount of nutrients lost actually negligible or is it like half or 90%?

and is all frozen veg frozen straight away or is it best to stick with well known brands like birdseye?
cobaltmale
01-08-2008
Even TV cooks (not you Delia) recommend the likes of frozen peas. Works for some things but not others though I believe.

Herbs is another one. Think I found that out from this forum in fact.

G
dan1979
01-08-2008
I don't think there's any easy answer, it all depends how long ago it was picked and what variety it is.

I personally wouldn't bother with 'fresh' supermarket stuff because having eaten stuff that actually is fresh I know it's a rip off. Even at somewhere like Waitrose it's still a day or two worse than I can get on the street market.

One statistic I have heard is that frozen veg lose 10% of their nutrients per month.
TheHistoryGirl
01-08-2008
The only one I know for sure (and this is based on taste rather than nutritional content) are peas, which lose their flavour very rapidly once picked. It is never worth buying them from a supermarket unless frozen because they will have lost so much flavour and become chalky by the time they are picked, packaged, transported, displayed and sold. Unless you are getting them from the garden and eating immediately, frozen peas are better value flavour-wise.

I don't think it makes so much of a difference with other veg, although I do find supermarket sweetcorn (on or off the cob) tends to be rather chalky. But I find the same is true for frozen sweetcorn, so tend only to buy it if I find it in a farmer's market.
darkjedimaster
01-08-2008
I buy a bit of both, but refuse to buy fresh summer berries as they are a ripoff. I an buy a frozen bag which is over 3 times the size for cheaper the price & still tastes great in smoothies.
Ads
01-08-2008
I generally buy frozen peas and french beans, but most other vegetables taste better fresh. Frozen roast spuds are the worst - proper home made ones are so much nicer!
DaisyBumbleroot
02-08-2008
Originally Posted by darkjedimaster:
“I buy a bit of both, but refuse to buy fresh summer berries as they are a ripoff.”

god yeah - flippin £3 for a small box...


so frozen food - peas yes, everything else - no real difference...?
opinions4u
02-08-2008
Originally Posted by DaisyBumbleroot:
“god yeah - flippin £3 for a small box...


so frozen food - peas yes, everything else - no real difference...?”

I suspect you get what you pay for. I've often been disappointed with frozen veg, which has turned out to be tasteless mush. I'd suggest buying your own, blanching it (for veg that's suitable, obviously!) and freezing it in portioned up bags. I find this to particularly be the case with cauliflower. I chucked a bag of frozen cauli out last week because it was so awful, yet I never have a problem with cauli I've frozen myself.
DaisyBumbleroot
04-08-2008
Originally Posted by opinions4u:
“I suspect you get what you pay for. I've often been disappointed with frozen veg, which has turned out to be tasteless mush. I'd suggest buying your own, blanching it (for veg that's suitable, obviously!) and freezing it in portioned up bags. I find this to particularly be the case with cauliflower. I chucked a bag of frozen cauli out last week because it was so awful, yet I never have a problem with cauli I've frozen myself.”

i know what you mean about frozen veg which is why i didnt understand why it was supposed to have more nutrients.

howver, if i buy fresh veg, i eat it on the day... but you dont know how long its been picked for
whoever,hey
04-08-2008
For me i think its down to the size of the items generally. Things like peas and generally mixed veg bags i get frozen. But everything else must be fresh. Really tastes different.
squibble
04-08-2008
I think it's to do with sugars turning to starch as soon as you pick them. I grow peas, runner beans and broad beans, and all of these we pick, blanche then freeze within an hour to try and preserve as much of the natural sugars as possible.

Stuff that has been lying in the supermarkets for a couple of days, will have turned to starch and therefore lost the best part of it's flavour.
whoever,hey
04-08-2008
I know what you mean about the sugars thing, since we've been growing our mangtoute this year (first time). They taste so much sweeter than the shop ones, even the fresh organic veg box ones.
DaisyBumbleroot
04-08-2008
why blanche them before freezing as well please?
squibble
04-08-2008
Originally Posted by DaisyBumbleroot:
“why blanche them before freezing as well please?”

I think it's partly to preserve colour, flavour etc and also to kill off some kind of enzymes which degenerate the food.

I boil up a pan of water, plunge the stuff in it for a few minutes then into a bowl of icy water (to stop the cooking process), drain well and then into freezer bags.

I forgot to add that timing is imperative, and you might want to look up blanching times for whatever you're freezing. As apparently underblanching is worse than not blanching at all as it actually activates the enzymes.
OlgaChristie
05-08-2008
As soon as a vegetable is picked it starts losing nutrients, and by the time it is transported and laid on the supermarket shelf there is very little left in the way of vitamins. Frozen food companies pick and freeze their veg within approx 2 hours therefore retaining far more of their nutrients. The worst offenders are the ready prepared supermarket salads .............virtually no nutrients remain.
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