Reduce food waste, save money: Freezing Food
Freezing food is a useful and easy way to cut down on food waste. If you buy a large amount of vegetables on special, or have a surplus growing in your garden, freezing them is a good way to save them for later while preserving their nutritional value.
Most vegetables and a lot of fruit can be frozen. The key to successful freezing is the right preperation method. The University of Colorado has done research into the best ways to prepare fresh produce for freezing so that they retain the optimal amount of flavour and nutrients. Their guides can be found here:
Many cooked meals can be frozen too. Soups, stews, curries, burger patties (meat or vegetarian) and beans and lentils all keep well in the freezer. This is great if you tend to be short on time to cook during the week as you can make up some big batches of food on the weekend and defrost them as needed.
Top Freezing Tips
-
It's a good idea to allow food to cool to room temperature before freezing. Hot food will raise the temperature in your freezer and may cause other frozen items to partially defrost, possibly causing them to spoil. It also makes your freezer work harder to lower the temperature which wastes energy. It's important, however, not to leave food at room temperature for long periods as this may allow bacteria to grow so freeze it as soon as it is cool enough.
-
When you first put food in the freezer try to leave some space between the containers to allow the air to circulate freely which will freeze the food more quickly. This is especially important when freezing fresh produce as maintains the flavour, texture and nutritional value more effectively. After the food is frozen you can then pack it tightly together,
-
Invest in some good containers for freezing, Plastic containers work well but, if you're trying to reduce plastic use, glass jars can be used for liquids. Make sure that you use good quality preserving jars though as thinner glass can break when exposed to extreme temperatures, which could you with a very messy freezer. Reusable zip lock bags are good and can be washed and reused many times. For a plastic free alternative, aluminium foil can be used, but make sure that you seal your food well or it may be ruined by freezer burn.
-
Freezer burn occurs when frozen foods are exposed to the cold air of the freezer. This dries the food out, gives it a greyish appearance and a strange texture. Spoiled bits can be removed and the rest of the food will be fine to eat, but it's better to prevent freezer burn by removing as much air as possible from plastic bags or aluminium packages before sealing them up and making sure that they are well sealed.
-
Always remember that liquids expand when frozen so leave a few centimeters at the top of your container to allow for this.
-
Always reheat frozen food thoroughly before eating it. Freezing doesn't sterilise food, it just inhibits the growth of micro-organisms. As a result partially reheated food can harbour harmful bacteria. Allow soups and stews to boil for at least 2 minutes and make sure that any meat or burgers are well heated all the way through.
-
Label food with the date before you put it in the freezer so you know what you need to use first. Put new items at the back of the fridge and move older items forward so that you remember to use them up.
