Fresh or Frozen?

Photo credit: Kelly West Mars

Fresh. Definitely Fresh.

Ask any food scientist – all food manufacturers must blanch produce before freezing them.

We recently sat down with Food Scientist Jinny Lok, B.Sc., MBA. She explains, “vegetables contain enzymes. If enzymes are not deactivated through blanching prior to freezing, they can cause vegetables to rot, lose colour and flavour even after the vegetables are frozen.”

“Blanching vegetables means submitting them briefly to boiling water or steam. The heat treatment destroys the enzymes, changes the texture and sets the color.  For extended storage, this improves the keeping quality of the vegetables.”

In addition to the loss of nutrients due to blanching, the freezing process also degrades certain vitamins. An Italian university published a finding in the Journal of Food Science that freezing broccoli caused a decrease of 39% of vitamin C and a 29% decrease of sulforaphane (an anti-cancer compound).

The argument against eating fresh produce stems from a concern that produce loses nutrients when it travels for a week across a continent, as well as the fact that unripe fruits are more acidic than ripe ones.

If you’re able to buy locally grown produce, and eat it fresh, you are able to save a large amount of nutrition versus eating frozen vegetables.

Here are some links to farmer’s markets in Canada and the U.S. to find a market near your home:

• Farmers Markets in Canada
• Farmers Markets in Ontario
• Farmers Markets in the USA

Follow Jinny’s blog or Tweets here.