Freezing Food Just another way to preserve your food!

Home Freezers Should be adjusted to an even temperature of -20 degrees Celsius.

Labelling is very important! Food packages should be labelled with: ◦ Name of food ◦ Date frozen ◦ Other helpful information

Don’t freeze all food NOT: ◦ Uncooked cake batter ◦ Cream fillings, puddings, custards ◦ Salad greens/garnishes ◦ Creamed cottage cheese ◦ Boiled potatoes ◦ White of hard cooked eggs ◦ Cream

Freezing Fruit 3 ways to prepare fruit: ◦ Dry Pack: freeze dry fruit on tray then zip-lock ◦ Dry Sugar Pack: Mix fruit and sugar, pack ◦ Syrup Pack: Pack fruit in desired syrup, leave headspace.

Avoiding discolouration Light coloured fruits may darken during freezing Add ascorbic acid or lemon juice Examples of fruit: apples, peaches, apricots, cherries, pears, plums

Freezing Vegetables Blanching: inactivates enzymes If you don’t blanch veggie will develop “off” flavour and toughen ◦ Water blanching – most common (put in boiling water, cover and time) ◦ Steam blanching – best for french cut green beans and diced veg’s. Takes 1.5 times longer

Chilling/Thawing Chill vegetables immediately after blanching in ice water or cold running water. Then drain, pack and freeze Thawing: cook most vegetables from frozen. Asparagus, broccoli and spinach can be thawed to separate.

Freezing Meat, Fish, Poultry Package in one-meal portions in moisture- vapour resistant wrappings ◦ Fish freezes best in ice ◦ Thaw in original wrap ◦ NEVER REFREEZE MEAT THAT IS THAWED!!

Freezing baked products Most can be frozen either before or after baking ◦ Rolls, breads, biscuits, muffins, cakes, cookies Pies are best frozen uncooked, then baked

Food Value of Frozen Food Fruits – about the same food value as fresh Vegetables – lose some water soluble minerals and vitamins in blanching process. Meats – lose some nutrients in drippings therefore thawing should be as short as possible. Since spoilage agents are not destroyed, thawed food should be used AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!