frozen food

[dreamrawalwz]

I'm full of questions tonight. What is the process of freezing foods (commercially). I usually have thawed out peas, is this bad and not raw?

[VeggieMel]

I know they blanch fruits and vegetables before freezing them, so I don't think they're really raw, especially peas which I believe are thoroughly pre-cooked.

[meganthevegan]

wow, so they blanch fruits as well. I knew about the veggies! oh, my! Is that one more thing I need to pull out of my diet. I use frozen fruit as a money and time saving thing. boohoo.

[swiddweas]

I know they dont blanch strawberries or blueberries. Otherwise, they would just fall apart! These I know are flash frozen.' Therefore these are raw.

Veggiemel, where did you get your information?

PattyE

[VeggieMel]

Hi swid,

Over the years, it seems I've read about frozen fruits and vegetables being blanched in several websites. I can't remember in particular which they were. Perhaps you're right about some fruits not being blanched.

[swiddweas]

I just can't imagine what a strawberry would look and taste like blanced (cooked)! To me it would look droopy and soggy, yuck. I think I will experiment with a fresh strawberry. blanch it then freeze it and see if it is the same as a fresh one would be just being frozen. I am even going to call the company that packages these frozen strawberries and get their info, too.

Patty

[Sharon in Colorado]

Not sure about the blanching, you'd think if they did that, the fruits and veggies would have to dry out before freezing or they'd stick together in a big lump in the bags. I have a feeling a lot of veggies and fruits nowadays are fresh frozen right after picked.

When my daughter was little, I made her baby food. I recall the frozen peas being very bright green, whereas the peas from the produce department were more of a dark dull green. It was when I cooked the baby food, don't know if that makes a difference.