Do you regularly consume frozen foods and are you worried about whether or not they maintain all their nutritional properties? They are a quick and easy option, especially for preserving food.
If you are concerned about what you eat each day, and particularly you tend to look at the different qualities and nutritional properties that the foods you eat tend to provide in your daily diet, it is quite likely that at some point you have wondered if the foods and products frozen foods retain all their properties and benefits. Or if they lose them.
As many statistics show, more and more people are opting for frozen foods, and for recipes -for example- already prepared beforehand and frozen later. It is a very useful alternative, especially for those who do not have much free time, and need to defrost a certain food and cook or consume it quickly.
What is a frozen food? What are its advantages?
Basically we could define frozen food as a food that has been subjected to an intense application of cold, helping to avoid the deterioration of the product and stopping the different bacteriological and enzymatic processes that could take place in it when it is at room temperature or preserved in the fridge.
That is to say, the main difference between a fresh food and a frozen food comes from the fact that, precisely, the latter has been subjected to an extreme decrease in temperature, which causes the water to freeze, which is its main component.
This offers interesting advantages, since it increases the useful life of the food, while, as we indicated at the beginning of this section, it ensures the maintenance of its microbiological quality. While, in addition, its virtues and organoleptic qualities are hardly altered.
In addition, it is usually common that they are already peeled, washed and cut, especially if they are frozen vegetables. So its use in the kitchen can be much faster and easier.
Is it true that frozen foods lose properties?
Contrary to what is often mistakenly thought, many nutritionists agree that, in most cases, natural products that have been frozen may contain a greater amount of vitamins and minerals, compared to those that have been refrigerated more. Late, even though the latter are fresh.
Why? Mainly because frozen natural foods tend to be processed, and therefore frozen, almost immediately after harvest.
This means that, ultimately, most of its nutritional qualities are maintained. And if we actually compare them with the same fresh natural food that has been refrigerated days after harvest (for example when buying it and bringing it home), it is likely that they have preserved better in frozen food.
However, although frozen natural foods retain their properties, it does not mean that they are better than their fresh option. It is true that they can contain and maintain all their nutritional qualities if they have been quickly frozen after harvest. But in most cases the latter is very difficult to find out, so we will never be entirely sure.
Therefore, the natural and fresh option will always be above its frozen alternative, since we will ensure that it is in its optimal period of consumption and will contain most of its essential nutrients.
Not all frozen foods are healthy…
But we must be careful to think that frozen foods are better, or that they always have the same benefits.
We must clearly differentiate between those frozen foods that are natural (such as vegetables or fruits) or from slaughter (such as meat or fish), which retain their nutritional value, flavor and freshness, from precooked or frozen foods.
Generally, precooked or frozen prepared foods have a higher amount of fat and additives, so from a nutritional point of view they are not always highly recommended. We could mention products such as pre-fried potatoes, frozen croquettes or lasagna.
