Food and your freezer

The Big Chill

Anna Kohn, eco options, Fall 2007

With so many of us in constant rush mode these days, who has time for all the things we know are important?  Eating wholesome foods and doing our bit to tread a little more lightly on the planet may be on our minds, but translating thought to action is another matter, easily forgotten in the shuffle of work, kids, meals on the fly, laundry and bills.

That’s where freezers come into the picture.  They allow us to have healthy food readily available without all the extra packaging (not to mention sodium and chemical preservatives) that prefab foods often use.  And some of the latest freezers and fridges also help our reduce energy use.

BEST BUYS

ENERGY STAR models are wonderfully energy efficient, which means you save money as well as time.  ENERGY STAR products are also endorsed by Eco Options as being great choices for the environment.

• Chest freezers are the way to go.  They’re more energy efficient than upright models because they release less cold air when opened.  Both Maytag and Danby offer different sizes of ENERGY STAR chest freezers.

• The larger the freezer, the more energy it uses, so it's best to buy the smallest one possible that still suits your family’s needs.

• Standard-sized ENERGY STAR-certified freezers are at least 10% more energy efficient than the required standard in Canada.

ENERGY FACTS

Freezers must be certified by the international ENERGY STAR program in order to qualify for Eco Options.

• ENERGY STAR identifies products that are among the most energy-efficient on the market.  Choosing an ENERGY STAR-labeled product over a conventional model can save you hundreds of dollars in energy costs.

• An Eco Options, ENERGY STAR-certified 9-cubic-foot freezer, for example, could save 10% on its running cost over a year, compared to a conventional freezer.

HOW TO PACK FRUIT FOR FREEZING

There are three way to pack fruits for freezing; with sugar, with sugar syrup and unsweetened.  (Organic sugar is available at health-food stores and some large grocery stores.)  Packing them on  a tray is another method (see “How to pack vegetables” below).

• Some fruits can be frozen without sugar, such as gooseberries, currants, cranberries, blueberries and rhubarb.

• To freeze fruits using sugar, sprinkle the required amount of sugar over the fruit.  Gently stir until the pieces are coated with sugar and juice.

• To make sugar syrup, dissolve the needed amount of sugar in cold water.  Stir the mixture and let stand until the solution is clear.  Gently stir fruit in the syrup until pieces are coated with syrup and juice.

HOW TO PACK VEGETABLES FOR FREEZING

There are two basic methods: on a tray or "dry."  

• Tray:  Lay blanched and drained vegetables on a tray or shallow pan and freeze them.  Put the frozen pieces into a bag or container as soon as they are frozen.  This method is particularly good for peas, corn and beans. It can be also used for freezing berries.

• Dry:  Tightly pack blanched and drained vegetables into containers or freezer bags to cut down on the amount of air in the container.  If the vegetables are in freezer bags, press the air out of the unfilled part of the bag.  When packing broccoli, alternate the heads and stems.

TIPS ON HOW TO FREEZE

Freeze as soon after harvest as possible and at peak degree of ripeness.

• In most cases, blanching is essential for producing top-quality frozen vegetables.   It maintains their flavour, colour, texture and nutrients, as well as helping destroy micro-organisms on the surface of the vegetables.  It also makes some vegetables – like broccoli and spinach – more compact.  So briefly boil your vegetables and then cool rapidly in ice water.

• Enzymes can cause browning and loss of vitamin C in fruits.  Treating the fruit with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is the most effective way to prevent this from happening. 

• Remove as much air as possible from the freezer bag or container to reduce the amount of air in contact with the food and save on space in the freezer.

• Freezing produce as quickly as possible produces better results.  Set the freezer at the coldest setting several hours before food will be place in the freezer – but don’t forget to turn it down later.  Overloading the freezer with unfrozen products will result in a long, slow freeze and a poor-quality product.

THE CASE FOR ORGANICS

Whether you grow fruit and vegetables yourself or buy organic at the increasing number of supermarkets that offer you the option, going organic is gaining momentum.  A number of recent studies show that eating pesticide-free food can have clear health benefits.

• In a Canadian study done this year, called Polluted Children, Toxic Nation:  A Report on Pollution in Canadian Families and conducted by Environmental Defense, children, parents and one grandparent from five Canadian families were tested for 68 toxic chemicals, 46 of which were detected in children as young as 10.  If a child and an adult each eat an apple, says the report, they may ingest similar amounts of contaminants, but the child receives a proportionally greater amount of toxins, due to his or her lower body weight.  We all ingest low doses of heavy meals, pesticides and other pollutants, the report continues, but eating an organic diet does reduce our exposure to pesticides.

• In a 2005 study led by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, three-to 11 year-old children who ate only organic foods had virtually no metabolites of two common pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, in their systems.

• After the children returned to eating conventionally grown foods, concentrations of these pesticides quickly climbed back. 

• A 2002 University of Washington study came to similar conclusions:  it found that children eating organic fruits and vegetables had concentrations of pesticide six to nine times lower than children eating conventional produce.

• Britain’s Soil Association looked at 400 nutritional research studies and reported in 2001 that foods grown organically had more minerals and vitamins.

 • When a study published in February 2006 compared the British government’s nutrition data on meat and dairy products from 1940 and from 2002, it found that the healthy (mineral) content of milk, cheese and beef had declined dramatically during that time.  In 15 different meat items, iron content dropped by an average of 47%, while the iron content of milk fell by more than 60%.

 • Organic fruits and vegetables have significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants, according to a 2003 study in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.  Organic plants produce these chemical compounds to fight off insects and competing plants.