Does Freezing "kill" our food??

[Holli]

I was at a raw food potluck in my area and I met some very interesting people. One person said that when we freeze our food it kills it. I use frozen fruit all the time in my smoothies and I get bags of frozen organic peas and corn for my recipes...thoughts on if this is detrimental to the nutrients?? I suppose I could use all fresh fruit and just add ice to my smoothies...

[EZ rider]

I wonder, if a growing sprout is frozen solid and then removed from the refer will it grow again ?

[tanishamarshall]

This is a very good question. I bet a sprout won't continue growing.. hmmmm

[ladypeace82]

who wants to test the theory?

[tanishamarshall]

I can. Actually I soaked my flax for to long and it started sprouting, I'll take some and put it in the freezer tonight and try to resprout in 2 days..

[Random Violin Guy]

Can't frozen seeds still be sprouted? For now I trust the freezer for short-term storage.

[tanishamarshall]

Can't frozen seeds still be sprouted? For now I trust the freezer for short-term storage.

I don't know maybe I'll try frozen seeds and my already sprouted flax seeds

[Riiiya]

from what i understood from David Wolfe, it doesn't Kill food, but it does take away some of its minerals and vitamins (30 to 60%, depends i guess).. i want to find out more on this subject though!

[RawCutter]

dont some plants need a frozen or cold cycle to sprout? like tulips?

[Holli]

I was just reding on another site that if you chop up your own fruits and freeze them yourselves than that is okay, but some frozen store-bought foods and almost all frozen store-bought veggies are blanched before frozen. Can anyone validate this info?

[Random Violin Guy]

I was just reding on another site that if you chop up your own fruits and freeze them yourselves than that is okay, but some frozen store-bought foods and almost all frozen store-bought veggies are blanched before frozen. Can anyone validate this info?

Oh, I can validate this one! I had some store-bought frozen corn that I wanted to use up before I moved. I added some to a smoothie, and :eek: MAN, OH MAN! :eek: I had a hard time finishing it. Then I started to feel sick a few hours later. I've had corn on the cob before with no ill effects, but the store-bought frozen stuff is definitely out for me.

[RawCutter]

I was just reding on another site that if you chop up your own fruits and freeze them yourselves than that is okay, but some frozen store-bought foods and almost all frozen store-bought veggies are blanched before frozen. Can anyone validate this info?

yes, most store bought frozen veges are blanched

[asil]

Some info about freezing:

Commercial frozen veggies are blanched before they're frozen.

Seeds can be frozen and then still sprout. In fact, a group I belong to had a scientist from the Millenium Seed project speak (a worldwide effort to preserve biodiversity by collecting seeds and storing them. The idea is that the seeds should last, you know, a millenium.) Freezing short term -- a year or two -- hardly affects seeds at all. For the long term -- hundreds of years or more -- they first dessicate the seeds, then freeze them.

Sprouted seeds would definitely NOT grow after they've been frozen.

[Anabbytree]

Is fruit blanched before it is frozen?

[ladypeace82]

Some info about freezing:

Commercial frozen veggies are blanched before they're frozen.

Seeds can be frozen and then still sprout. In fact, a group I belong to had a scientist from the Millenium Seed project speak (a worldwide effort to preserve biodiversity by collecting seeds and storing them. The idea is that the seeds should last, you know, a millenium.) Freezing short term -- a year or two -- hardly affects seeds at all. For the long term -- hundreds of years or more -- they first dessicate the seeds, then freeze them.

Sprouted seeds would definitely NOT grow after they've been frozen.

this makes sense. i mean, seeds that are frozen in the ground under ice and snow during winter always sprout in the spring....

[dreamrawalwz]

I was just reding on another site that if you chop up your own fruits and freeze them yourselves than that is okay, but some frozen store-bought foods and almost all frozen store-bought veggies are blanched before frozen. Can anyone validate this info?

Yes, I was going to mention that, but you beat me to it. Most ARE blanched and dusted with corn starch. I'm not sure about the fruit though, but I know they're dusted with the corn starch as well.

[Anabbytree]

Dream-

Even ORGANIC fruit? The frozen organic fruit I buy at whole foods doesn't say anything on the bag about corn starch!

oh, no

[dreamrawalwz]

Dream-

Even ORGANIC fruit? The frozen organic fruit I buy at whole foods doesn't say anything on the bag about corn starch!

oh, no

I don't think any of them say "corn starch" since it's not really part of the product or it's just a minimal amount that htey can get away with it. I have not found any information about organic frozen fruits though. Sorry! I'm curious myself. Maybe call the company and ask?

[Anabbytree]

I e-mailed Whole Foods, we'll see what they say.

[Bobbie]

Yes lots of people store their nuts/seeds in the freezer. But sprouts die if you put them in the freezer. My mum once did this!!!!!! They came out soft as if theyd been cooked and had a laxative effect.

[Anabbytree]

This is the email I sent to Whole Foods, and the Response I got. It looks as though their ORGANIC frozen fruits and veggies are not subjected to rolling or dusting or coating in anything.


Product:
Organic Frozen Fruits
Message:
Hello! I love using your (whole foods brand) organic frozen fruits in smoothies. I recently told this to a friend who cautioned me that "all frozen fruits have been dusted in corn starch before freezing." Are your organic frozen fruits dusted with corn starch, or anything else? I was under the impression that they were picked ripe and then frozen, not blanched or otherwise treated or dusted in any way. Thank you for providing any information you may have! Abby

Dear Abby,

Thanks for your inquiry about our Private Label brand frozen vegetables. All such vegetables are not dusted with corn starch after harvesting. Our Private Label conventional and organic fruits and vegetables follow the same general harvesting and processing procedures. The fields of fruit/vegetables are located within close proximity of the processing facilities. Fruits/vegetables begin to lose their nutrients quickly after being picked. The quicker they can be cleaned and frozen, the more the natural nutritional value of these items is locked in. When the fruit/vegetable arrives at the processing facility, it is placed on conveyer belts where workers sort out defects, extraneous materials and misshapen fruit. The items are then put through a water bath, rinsed and then frozen. After the product is frozen it is visually inspected prior to going into 40 lb boxes.

The freezing method is called IQF or Individually Quick Frozen. It is a two step process. The first step is a crusting of the product by passing through a CO-2 spiral freezer which introduces -73 degree CO-2 gas and accelerates the heat transfer by increased air movement with the use of large volume and velocity fans inside the freezer. The second step is the freezing of the product, actually decreasing the core temperature of the product to zero degrees. This is accomplished by high velocity air passing through aluminum coils filled with super chilled ammonia gas. (-28 degrees).

During this time Quality Assurance is reviewing samples taken off the line to determine the grade that will be assigned to the fruit. The product is then put in cold storage. At some point this fruit is then pulled out and repacked into buyers labels depending on the individual buyer requirements. During this repacking process the fruit is again visually inspected prior to going into buyers label and then graded in finished form by Quality Assurance.

Thanks for being a Whole Foods Market shopper, and feel free to contact us with any additional questions!
Reagan Taplin

Senior Customer Service Specialist, Private Label


So, they do seem to be subjected to a few types of gas being blown over them, but other than that, it seems pretty darn close to what you'd do in your own house,

Abby

[Holli]

Very cool. I don't have a Whole Foods, so I get some of my frozen fruit and veggies from Trader Joes...I've emailed them as well and I'll let you know when they respond.

[RawCutter]

The items are then put through a water bath, rinsed and then frozen.

They said no to dusting but they didn't explicitly say they did not blanch the vegetables. I wonder what the above statement means.

Blanching is a process where vegetables are plunged into boiling water then rinsed with cold water.

I would write back and see if they blanch and/or get the temperature of this water bath.

[Anabbytree]

Raw Cutter-

I will do that, although I am pretty certain that the fruit (at least) that I buy is not blanched. The berries would not look and feel the way they do if they were blanched.

[Random Violin Guy]

I thought the same thing, RawCutter. I can't say that I trust them all too much.

[Anabbytree]

I e-mailed them, so we'll see what they say!

[codajess]

When I was little I once "rescued" a caterpillar that was frozen in some ice on our pond. I put him on a plate on the radiator and he thawed out and came back to life. :D It was like encino man.

/random.

[Anabbytree]

As a follow up to the post I made yesterday, some more info-

Dear Abby,

None of our fruits or vegetables are blanched, and I will contact the production facility to find out what temperature that water is for the water bath.

Thanks!
Reagan Taplin
Senior Customer Service Specialist, Private Label

[Eveleaf]

Don't they freeze sperm to keep it? :D



This is my reasoning on why freezing my own fresh food doens't kill it.

But I don't buy frozen veggies at supermarkets because I'm not sure what they've done to it.

[Holli]

For those of you who do shop at Trader Joes, I emailed them and this was their reply:

Thank you for you interest in our products. The frozen Fruit are raw,
however, the frozen vegetables will be blanched. None of these product
are dusted with any corn starch.

[Anabbytree]

Thanks for checking that out Holli!

[Medusa1977]

Fruit is not blanched but subjected to a chemical bath to perserve color, which is why it tastes slightly different.

[mongodelight]

you can freeze sperm and use it to make babies 100 years later. So if such a complex thing like a human "seed" isnt damaged by the cold, i dont think its bad to freeze your food. So knock yourself ouT hahahaa

[Ilse W.]

The blanching process doesn't cook the food. It stays in the hot water just a few seconds and gets plunged into ice water. You do the same when you freeze vegetables at home. What's so unhealthy about eating cooked food is that all enzymes are killed by cooking, which means your body has to provide the enzymes to digest the food. That depletes the body of enzymes needed to repair the body and keep down inflammation, the cause of many diseases. Blanching vegetables may kill some enzymes in the very outer layer of the vegetable, but the inside does not get cooked, and still has enzymes intact. I would not worry about eating such vegetables, I would only use small amounts blended in a recipe, since defrosted vegetables are not crisp. From a purely nutritional standpoint though, they are the next best thing to fresh and raw, unless you cook them.
As far as general freezing goes, just think of nature. If a flower sprouts too early in spring because of crazy warm weather and then is caught in a later freeze, that plant dies and won't recuperate. The bulbs and seeds, though, normally freeze in winter, some of them even require the freeze. There are some plants that would not survive a freeze, and that's why you find those in the tropics.:D