Nutrition in the freezer

Nutrition and Health information supplied to GrownUps by Wattie's

Frozen vegetables are a good compliment to fresh, providing out of season favourites through out the year. Today's varieties have come a long way from the carrot, pea and corn combinations, although for a lot of people those remain their traditional favourites. Combinations based on Asian, Italian and Thai style vegetables are commonly available; with new mixtures continually being developed to cater for people's evolving tastes.

The nutrient content of frozen vegetables may be as good as store-bought fresh in many cases, and as with canning, the outdated myth of both types being inferior to fresh cooked has now been debunked. Research shows that overall there is often no significant difference between the three types 1, 2. In fact Frozen vegetables can be more nutritious than Imported fresh vegetables for sale when local produce is out of season. A study 3 by the Austrian Consumers' Association showed that fresh vegetables, which have travelled long distances to reach the shop shelf, lose many of their vitamins and mineral on the journey. This is in contrast to frozen vegetables, which are usually processed within hours of picking, thereby preserving a higher proportion of their nutrient content.

Frozen vegetables also address a number of people's stated barriers to eating plenty of vegetables. These include availability, quality and spoilage. Frozen vegetables are always available in the supermarket and can be kept on - hand in the home freezer. The quality of frozen vegetables is excellent as they are processed soon after harvest and there is little waste or spoilage as you use only what you need each time.

Too often there are comments that frozen vegetables are soggy, tasteless and contain little goodness. However, this will not be the case if they are heated according to on-pack instructions or even used as a last minute addition to a stew or stir-fry meal. Because frozen vegetables are already partially cooked by rapid steam blanching process, they need very minimal cooking.

To get the best results with frozen vegetables there are a few easy things people can do.

• Select frozen food last to reduce chance of partial thawing
• Place in chilly bin in the car and take straight home to put in the freezer

Wattie's SteamFresh vegetables, steam the vegetables in the microwave in a specially vented bag, providing flavour, colour and goodness of traditionally steamed vegetable.

If adding to a stew or sauce of any sort, such as a bolognaise, or other pasta sauce, add frozen vegetables around 2 minutes before serving to just heat them through.

1. Canned Food Advisory Service Research "The Goodness is in the Can" undertaken by the University of Otago and the Institute of Environmental Health and Forensic Science, 1994

2. Crop & Food Research "Frozen Vegetables; Do they Count?" Research undertaken on behalf of Heinz Wattie's Australasia and independently reviewed, 2000

3. As reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, April 3, 2003.

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