Eating fruit and vegetables regularly is important for a healthy, balanced diet. What to do whenever your favorite healthy meals are out of season?
Here’s a curveball – very often, freshly frozen fruit and vegetables will be more nutritious for you, than their fresh out-of-season counterparts. How does it work and where does the freshness come from? Keep reading to find out. Everything in this article is backed by research and professional advice from nutritionists.
What’s the secret? IQF frozen vegetables keep fresh thanks to the innovative freezing technology behind them.
You may have heard a lot of myths related to frozen food and its health impact – this article will in part try to dispel them while informing you of the often neglected advantages present in frozen food. To start with, freezing is one of the most energy-efficient, quickest, and healthiest ways to preserve food. By picking them at peak ripeness, the vegetables are overflowing with healthy nutrients ready for consumption.
The proper freezing technique will lock these nutrients inside, and after a quick processing time, make the vegetables last far past their expected prime of one to two days. In all this time, the necessary vitamins and minerals are fully preserved in their state.
IQF stands for individually-quick-frozen food, which is a technological approach towards freezing that preserves the most natural shape, form, texture, and taste of the product. It involves a dedicated process that can be combined with blanching – where the product is washed and blanched with hot jets of water in a waterfall formation to ensure uniform cooking. After a short blanching process, they’re chilled from 80-90 degrees down to 7 degrees Celsius, capturing the vitamins inside. A quick shake later, and the vegetables are ready to be frozen in Octofrost’s ultramodern freezing tunnel, which features unique bedplate technology making it exceed current industry hygiene standards. In short – it’s the safest, fastest, and most effective way of preserving the vegetables in their freshest state by freezing.
So-called “fresh” produce is typically arriving from overseas. Unless you have the luxury of living near a farmer’s market and can afford the hefty costs, IQF spinach will be much more accessible. Upon transportation, if the vegetables are shipped for multiple days, they become significantly less nutritious and may even lose some of their original shapes. Compare that to their frozen counterparts – and you can see how the advantages start stacking up. Each day sees the vegetables lose a part of their nutritious value.
A large part of recent psychological research has shown that leading a healthy lifestyle has a lot to do with what we do in our day-to-day life. Choosing between eating healthy, by incorporating some IQF broccoli is much simpler, than having to buy fresh veggies and cooking and eating them within 1-2 days.
Not only that, but you can always have your favorite healthy additions at the ready! If you’re a fan of cooking, you know how important that can be.
It’s always wise to know when you should opt for fresh alternatives, if possible. If there are seasonal options available at the local market, or you need specific varieties that aren’t available frozen, and they’re affordable – we encourage you to buy them! However, if you’d like to give frozen veggies a try – know that it can be done without second thoughts, as it’s a healthy, delicious alternative to buying fresh. Store them safely in the freezer and pick them out whenever you need some. A personal favorite of ours is IQF avocados – certainly, worth a try. Bon Appetit!
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