Freeze in the food value

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 18

Freeze in the food value

Fruit and vegetables frozen soon after picking often have higher food value than shop-bought produce, according to an expert in freezing techniques, Mrs Sonia Brodie. Vegetables like spinach lost up. to 60 per cent of their nutritional value 24 hours after they were picked. Produce which was quickly frozen was often better than that which had been-sitting for several days on shop shelves. The author of a book soon to be released in New’ Zealand, Mrs Brodie has worked for 15 years in the frozen foods industry,

In England and France Mrs Brodie studied ways of packing and freezing. For. eight years she has worked'-in. Australia, where she helped found the Freezing of Foods Council. It is important, Mrs Brodie says, to use the right methods if home freezing is to be a success.

She offers advice on choosing and caring for a freezer as well as tips on how to prepare and package foods to be frozen.

The options are many. Stone fruit, like apricots, may be open (free-flow) frozen, dry packed, sugar-syrup packed, unsweetened-water packed, pureed • or, precooked. • The addition of ascorbic acid, ¥4 teaspoon in half a cup of water,, or 2 table-

spoons of lemon juice, stops oxidation and the browning of fruit. New Zealanders were more conversant with freezing than Australians because the shorter growing seasons make them more aware of the need to preserve foods. Growing one’s own' vegetables and freezing them was a big money saver, she said, in Christchurch recently. However, a few foods did not freeze successfully. These included vegetables with a high water content like lettuce and cucumber. Bananas were “not the best”; frozen as they blackened. If,they were in peak condition' and done in foil they could- last. Mrs Brodie also said forceripened .pineapple and apples had not been successfully frozen in Australia. New Zealand apples, however, had a higher acid content and • should maintain better condition.

Experiments in Australia had determined the freezerlife of garlic, and some herbs and spices. This could differ from country to country and according to the type of freezer used. European and American freezers had a greater "pulldown capacity” which meant they could freeze foods to a lower temperature more quickly, Mrs Brodie explained. Fast freezing got the best results, and Mrs Brodie recommended that New Zea-

landers should set their freezer's temperature at minus 15deg. Her book, “The Australian and New Zealand Home Freezer Book" will be released here in April or May. It is already available in Australia and is soon to go in to its second edition. Mrs Brodie says the book differs from many on the market because it was written solely for the Australasian region. Many others had just adapted Northern Hemisphere texts, she said.