Frozen Vegetables Are Just As Nutritious As The Fresh Stuff, So Go Ahead And Add Them To Your Cart (2024)

FAQs

Are frozen veggies just as healthy as fresh? ›

“Despite what you might have heard, frozen fruits and vegetables contain just as many nutrients as fresh produce, and sometimes more,” says Prof. Tim Spector, ZOE's scientific co-founder and a professor of epidemiology at King's College London.

Depending on the fruit, some may retain more nutrients frozen while others are better fresh. Nutrients in fruit are at their peak right after being picked. Because fruit is frozen quickly, it retains nutritional value. If your fresh fruit is truly fresh, the nutrient value may be similar.

Frozen Produce can Contain Additives

Additives can be a variety of ingredients, such as sugar, salt, or seasonings. Not all frozen vegetables contain additives, so don't let this keep you from choosing frozen varieties over fresh.

And once you are ready to use that vegetable, cook it first! Frozen vegetables aren't intended to be eaten from the bag, as they may contain bacteria that are destroyed when cooked properly and thoroughly. Be sure to follow the package directions on how to cook them.

Vegetables — whether frozen or fresh — are some of the healthiest foods you can eat. They provide your body with many important nutrients, including: Vitamins A, C, and folate. Minerals, such as calcium, potassium, and iron.

Since blueberries are frozen soon after they are picked, “they are equal in quality to fresh,” Plumb explains. She analyzed the anthocyanin content of blueberries frozen for one, three, and five months and found no decrease in antioxidants over fresh berries.

Notably the most well-recognized brand of fruit products, Dole is certainly one of the best frozen fruit brands on the market. While it's one of the most trusted frozen fruit brands in the United States, its customer base reaches across the pond to Europe and beyond.

Often, the plastic used for frozen fruits and vegetables is either #1, #2, or #5. Plastics marked with #2 and #5 are generally deemed safe in terms of heath, and plastic marked #1 is on the safer side of the spectrum, especially if it's not heated (1).

Canned and frozen are processed in a way that may remove some pesticide residues, but it's not likely that it will remove them all. Frozen and canned produce may retain more vitamins than fresh. However, dehydrated produce may lose some of their vitamin C and B-vitamins due to heat exposure.

Frozen produce is typically cheaper than its fresh equivalent, especially out of season. There is minimal wastage and you can use the exact amount you need – all of which makes frozen produce more cost effective and accessible to more people.

What is healthier canned or frozen vegetables? ›

Frozen vs. Canned: In general, frozen vegetables are better than canned. Fresh vegetables are blanched before freezing, and they do lose some nutrients but not a lot. Produce frozen right at its peak has more nutrients than produce that is picked too early, held, and shipped for thousands of miles.

Frozen produce may have more nutrients than fresh, as it is typically picked at peak ripeness. However, some nutrients are lost during processing, and nutrients in both degrade with longer storage. Fresh fruits and vegetables are some of the healthiest foods you can eat.

Many people erroneously believe that “fresh is best”, but when it comes to berries, the frozen varieties have a higher concentration of nutritional elements, and are often spared from the large amounts of pesticides that are used on fresh berries found in a supermarket.

Most vegetables are blanched prior to freezing to inactivate the undesirable enzymes in the tissues. This mild heat treatment is acceptable for vegetables because they are usually cooked before consumption. Similar to fruits, several factors influence the microstructure and quality of frozen vegetables.

Freezing spinach does not seem to mean any loss in beta-carotene content. Frozen spinach is terrific to keep on hand for an easy nutrient boost in soups and sauces. For other uses, cook spinach (fresh or frozen) by steaming, microwaving, stir-frying or sautéing to retain folate and vitamin C.

During blanching, vegetables are typically exposed to hot temperatures to kill off the bacteria. They could lose some vitamin B and C in the process, but for the most part, their nutritional value remains intact. General nutrient loss from blanching averages 10-20%.