Is there a way to tell if frozen vegetables have been blanched?

Even if they're not blanched, they're not really live. They're still raw but there's a distinct difference between raw and living foods. Living foods would include fruits/greens that were picked and eaten almost immediately after harvest and nuts/seeds that are eaten while still in the process of sprouting. I think your best bet would be to contact whatever company you're thinking of purchasing from and ask if their products are blanched or not.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2014 07:44PM by jtprindl.

Peter Beltel Wrote:
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> Is there a way to tell if frozen vegetables have
> been blanched?

All commercially sold frozen vegetables have been blanched.

As far as I know, frozen veggies are blanched prior to freezing.
From my experience with frozen veggies, they were all blanched.
I loved to eat frozen green peas and at first I thought they were fresh, they were so good, sweet and tasty. Then I ate really fresh and raw green peas and they were not good, they were not sweet and they were rather hard. So I realised that the frozen ones were definitely not fresh or raw and that was why I liked them so much: because they were acually cooked.

However, I heard that frozen fruits are not necessarily blanched prior to freezing.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

SueZ Wrote:
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> Peter Beltel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is there a way to tell if frozen vegetables
> have
> > been blanched?
>
> All commercially sold frozen vegetables have been
> blanched.


Unless there is some brand somewhere of commercially sold frozen fruit that has "raw vegan" boldly printed on it's packaging it, too, will have been blanched - usually with steam - and then flash frozen. If such a "raw vegan" brand of frozen fruit does exist (which I doubt) it will not look good, have citric acid and/or sugar added to it, and have a short shelf life. That's just how it is in todays world. If it's commercial and has been frozen it's been cooked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2014 01:08PM by SueZ.

Thank you, SueZ, I kept hearing so often that frozen fruits are not blanched, that I kind of started to believe it. I don't eat commercial frozen fruits anyway, I don't like them (except for the fruits I freeze myself, meaning bananas, as I don't like to freeze other fruits).

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Ela2013 Wrote:
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> Thank you, SueZ, I kept hearing so often that
> frozen fruits are not blanched, that I kind of
> started to believe it. I don't eat commercial
> frozen fruits anyway, I don't like them (except
> for the fruits I freeze myself, meaning bananas,
> as I don't like to freeze other fruits).
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're welcome, Ela.

[pubs.ext.vt.edu]

Quote

Only vegetables can be blanched before freezing. If fruit is blanched, and then frozen, the fruit will become mushy after defrosting.

Preparing Fruit for Freezing

Fruits may be frozen in sugar syrup, dry sugar, or with no sugar at all. Sugar syrup is preferred because it coats the cut fruit and protects it from the action of enzymes that change the color and appearance of the fruit. If no sugar is added, the fruit will not remain firm and will turn brown from the enzyme action. Use dry sugar for fruits that readily produce juice, such as strawberries and peaches. Sugar syrup is used to pack fruits that form juice slowly, such as pineapples and apples. Fruits packed in sugar or with syrup generally have a better texture and flavor than those packed dry, however, small berries such as cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and currants can be frozen without sugar.

Panchito Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> [pubs.ext.vt.edu]
>
> Only vegetables can be blanched before freezing.
> If fruit is blanched, and then frozen, the fruit
> will become mushy after defrosting.
>
> Preparing Fruit for Freezing
>
> Fruits may be frozen in sugar syrup, dry sugar, or
> with no sugar at all. Sugar syrup is preferred
> because it coats the cut fruit and protects it
> from the action of enzymes that change the color
> and appearance of the fruit. If no sugar is added,
> the fruit will not remain firm and will turn brown
> from the enzyme action. Use dry sugar for fruits
> that readily produce juice, such as strawberries
> and peaches. Sugar syrup is used to pack fruits
> that form juice slowly, such as pineapples and
> apples. Fruits packed in sugar or with syrup
> generally have a better texture and flavor than
> those packed dry, however, small berries such as
> cranberries, blueberries, raspberries,
> blackberries, and currants can be frozen without
> sugar.


That's info for home not commercial use.

In the past some commercial berries could have been frozen with minimal processing but the industry learns pretty fast after disasters and I have yet to see any companies claiming their frozen berries are "raw vegan" which they certainly would do if it could be proven as true.

Here is one reason why those who are expecting some time soon to be able to buy "raw vegan" commercially frozen berries will probably be waiting a very long time ...

"Hepatitis A Outbreak: How A Frozen Berry And Pomegranate Mix Could Sicken 97"

[www.forbes.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2014 12:02AM by SueZ.

I get calls every now and then of possible contaminations of fresh fruits. It is normal. They give you the money back. Seaweed can be conatimanted with virus but nobody is going to warn you by phone. Does that mean that you have to blanch all seaweed from this new piece of information I just gave you? Raw food is risky

Panchito Wrote:
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> I get calls every now and then of possible
> contaminations of fresh fruits.


Fresh fruit is not frozen fruit.

You probably didn't notice but the frozen berries that gave all those people hepatitis were the suppliers of your favorite cheap frozen food store.

thats old news that was reported here by bananawho [www.rawfoodsupport.com]

Hope you don't plan to eat seaweed. It go virus and it is not going to make the news: [www.rawfoodsupport.com]

Panchito Wrote:
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<(just more off topic blah blah blah)


Panchito, get back to me when you find a brand of frozen berries that states IN WRITING "raw vegan". That I'll be interested in reading. The rest is just your typical meaningless goofy tap dancing.

upon opening a bag, you can tell they didn't blanch the berries when they are very firm. You don't need labels for common sense.

Suez, get back to me when you find a brand of seaweed that states IN WRITING "no virus". That I'll be interested in reading. The rest is just your typical meaningless goofy tap dancing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2014 04:09AM by Panchito.

I always throw some frozen fruit in my smoothies so I was concerned about this and looked it up and you can tell what is required to be blanched before being sold by looking it up the Codex Alimentarius. Use the "Find" Ctrl-F function to search the text to find the right PDF.

[www.codexalimentarius.org]

Here is part of the requirements for "quick frozen strawberries". It describes the fresh fruit and then the process and there is no mention of required blanching. In fact, I have never found mention of frozen fruit being required to be blanched but I didn't look up every frozen fruit, just the ones that I eat.



"2.1 Product Definition
Quick frozen strawberries are the product prepared from fresh, clean, sound, ripe and stemmed
strawberries of firm texture conforming to the characteristics of Fragaria grandiflora L. or Fragaria vesca L.
2.2 Process Definition
Quick frozen strawberries is the product subjected to a freezing process in appropriate equipment and
complying with the conditions laid down hereafter. This freezing operation shall be carried out in such a way
that the range of temperature of maximum crystallization is passed quickly. The quick freezing process shall
not be regarded as complete unless and until the product temperature has reached -18°C (0°F) at the thermal
centre after thermal stabilization. The recognized practice of repacking quick frozen products under controlled
conditions is permitted. "



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2014 02:21PM by Ifeelgood.

[www.woodstock-foods.com]

I contacted 'Woodstock Foods' as they are one of the brands that sells frozen organic fruit at my local co-op's and asked them if they blanched their fruit.

This is their response: "Our Woodstock Frozen Fruits are not blanched. After harvest, they are transported to the processing plant, graded, washed, sorted, and graded again. Then then go through a freezing tunnel where they are individually quick frozen and then packaged."

Frozen vegies:

Off course tomatoes and peppers are actually fruit.

Herbs and greens do not need to be blanced before freezing.

I always do my own.