I tried to look for this question in the archives because I am sure it has been asked before, so forgive me for being repeatitive...

I am pretty sure that if I freeze something I've got fresh that it is still raw - only the cell structure has broken down.

But what about bought frozen fruit and veg? Is there a standard process done to frozen food that makes it not raw?

And if freezing isn't that damaging why do frozen bananas taste completely different than fresh ones (for example)?

I agree fresh is best.... I'm just curious really. Thanks.

frozen foods at the grocery have generally been blanched (put into boiling water for a period of time) first then flash frozen so id say no

freezing your own stuff it would still be raw but broken down abit as you say



...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

omg ru serious about the blanching??! i buy frozen publix brand cherries and blueberries and berry mix (i cant afford organic frozen or fresh or even standard fresh! :[[) do they really blanch the fruit??? i heard a report that cascadian farms doesnt heat ne of their frozen fruits,, but i couldnt find nething on publix,, this is terrible if thats tru... im sad :[

Fuzzy you would have to call them and find out ... what i meant was conventional grocery store produce not from organic markets

publix ph# 800-242-1227

call them an ask ..the 800# doesnt work for me from canada sorry

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

o thankyou jgunn! i just tried calling them but they are closed, im deffinately calling them first thing 2morro,,

which part of canada are you from?

Vancouver BC Canada well outside of it .. town called Mission

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I get these great, large bags of frozen wild blueberries and raspberries for my smoothies, and they seem really fresh. (Wyman's brand.) Go with what tastes and feesl right-- that's what I'd do anyway.

(I'd buy fresh, but blueberries are about $5.99 a pint here; so are raspberries, and I can't afford it.)

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

I posted my experiences of spending a summer (Pea season) working at a frozen food factory to this board a while ago. If you're interesting in the horrors, feel free to search for it (I can't put my fingers on it right now).

Hope I will never have to eat frozen foods again.

The Wyman's site is kind of interesting, although there is some stuff they don't really say, and questions they don't really answer (I might email them about that). But you can sign up for seasonal work them and see for youself. Since you'd be working for the Wyman (rather than a faceless third party warehouser/freezer), I think there conditions might be better.

Of course, frozen blueberries are so much better for you than instant/10minute cornsyrip and blueberry cheese cake... (which I used to like so many years ago).

Ian.

basically all you have to do is look up the contact info for all the products you are buying frozen and call them. Also you can make it seem sorta like you want them to not be raw. It's a little underhanded but you generally get an honest answer. I've gotten two different answers about products depending on which side of the fence it seems like I'm sitting.

However, I've found that MOST frozen organic brands were frozen raw. This means that somewhere between 15-60% of their enzymatic properties have been destroyed and there can be some basica structural alteration as well, so this could affect the nutritional viability of frozen foods. BUT.. and I mean BUT... sometimes that the only thing to get in the winter. I live in Central Pennsylvania and the winter fresh fruit is pretty bad, so we eat a lot of frozen stuff... mainly berries and peaches. Berries hold up to freezing very well.

Cascadain Farms say they blanch ALL their frozen veggies, but the fruits are frozen raw. I called 2x and spoke to 2 different people and got the same answers written on their customer service scripts.

Ditto for Woodstock Farms. Frozen corn is not raw. I see raw folks post recipes often using cooked frozen corn and think it is raw.

Unless you are growing your own fruits and vegetables you are not going to get the naturally high enzyme count in your food that is optimal even if you eat everything raw.

Fruits, for example, only develop high enzyme content IF they are allowed to ripen on the tree or vine. IF they are picked unripe their enzyme count does not develop even after ripening on your kitchen counter or on the store shelves. A large percentage of the fruit we buy conventionally or even organically is NOT PICKED RIPE, therefore the enzyme development has been halted. Frozen fruit, on the other hand, is generally picked and frozen ripe and therefore may be richer in enzymes in some cases than its raw counterpart.

It's also important to realize that if you buy fresh raw fruits and veggies and let them sit in your fridge or on your counter for days at a time that they are actually losing life force rapidly. In some cases, frozen foods have more life in them than the bunch of raw celery you've had sitting in your fridge for a week.

We don't live in a perfect world guys. veggies must be blanched before frozen or they will "freezer burn", but its important to realize that blanching is not cooking. In most cases, the blanching method is pouring hot water over the veggies so that they never sit in water, or dipping them in hot water and immediately removing them. The heat actually maintains contact with the food for seconds only.


khale

At the frozen food factory I worked in, blanching is *definately* cooking. They spend a few minutes in a boiling water (which also contains color stabizer).

Also, I've not heard of any commercial frozen veggies (organic or not) that where not cooked/blanched first. Although I'd be interested to hear about such a band, it might have been wishful thinking on the part of who ever told you that.

Ian.

no

why choose something frozen over fresh because it is cheaper?

personally i'm not a stickler myself for eating only fruits in season..but you can deffinely survive through the winter without blueberries the whole antioxidant thing is mostly a marketing tool for products..not fresh fruits..it just happens to drive up the price of fresh ones out of season.

you can always pick something else fresh. even if the 'enymes' or whatever were intact of the frozen food (which, i'm pretty sure ian is correct) they are certainly dehydrated..just look at all the water (ice) collecting around the frozen thing.

the week old celery in the firdge certainly would taste worse (lack of nutrients) but not much water loss I don't think. so deffinetly says 'more fresh' to me.

The reason for them blanching the veggies is not important if you want to eat raw veggies only. If you want something cooked for a very short time, then eat them.

Frozen organic blueberries are 2$ out of season at some stores. That's very affordable.

The reason bananas lose their taste when frozen is for 2 reason. First is the issue of the damage to the cell walls. When you thaw a frozen banana, it typically doesn't look palatable any longer. For me, I never thaw my frozen bananas, just throw them into the blender or the Champion.

The other issue has to do with frost free refrigerators. These clever devices will every so often raise the temperature of the freezer to slightly above freezing temp to melt off the frost from the inside of the freezer. This constant raising and lowering of temperature caused the produce to go up and down, and this causes more water loss from the produce. Its best to uses a non-frost free freezer to store your frozen produce to reduce this water lossage.

By the way, the reason frozen durian works so well is all the fat in the durian protects the cell wall from rupturing, so when you thaw durian, it is pretty close to the fresh durian (at least much closer than a frozen strawberry or a frozen banana is to a fresh one).

even if a cell wall ruptures
it can no longer "stream"
cuz its frozen

ha ha

thought that was funny
don't know why
just hit me
tis all

But what if you have a frost free freezer, and the water is no longer frozen all the time?

>the whole antioxidant thing is mostly a marketing tool for products..not fresh fruits..it just happens to drive up the price of fresh ones out of season.

Yes. It's a buzzword. It doesn't work so well when people isolate the substances that are supposed to be beneficial. The whole fruit whole foods pattern works a lot better. Also it's probably not even the antioxidant property that is so protective but other aspects of those foods.

But some of us have blueberry addictions and do use frozen off season.

It's not very environmentally friendly, though. Frozen foods are ridiculously energy-intensive. Fresh is better.

I put my bananas in a zip loc bag when I freeze them. They seem to last a while (although I normally use them pretty fast because they are so yummy). This might help the moisture loss problem.

Cheers,
Ian.