I have had some Seville oranges in the bottom of my freezer for about ten years. Will they still be all right for making marmalade?

Food constantly stored at 0°F will always be safe. Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage. For the best quality possible, fruit should only be kept for up to 12 months.

When making Marmalade quality is important and I am sure you would prefer a nice rich flavor. You will also presumably make a batch of Marmalade, which will not be eaten all at once and will have an even longer shelf again.

However for future reference jams and marmalades are often called preserves themselves. The act of mixing the fruit with sugar or syrup, also acts as a preservative to keep the fruit in good condition. So when making marmalade with fresh oranges freezing it will make for maximum preservation for when you’re ready to eat it. Freezing is a natural process and so frozen foods need no artificial preservatives.

Tip: make sure everything you store in the freezer I well sealed so that a minimum amount of air can get to it and try to store things in a Tupperware container or similar (not a glass jar), so it has room to expand in the container. Click here for more info on storing frozen food

Frozen meals and frozen ready meals are expertly packaged so that they last longer in your freezer. Foods that we freeze at home do not share this advantage and so, as a result, qute often do not successfully freeze for so long. Frozen meals and frozen ready meals have the air flushed out to create a vacuum and this reduces contact with air. The packaging of frozen meals is airtight and this too preserves the frozen food. Home freezers are not really designed for freezing but for storing prepacked frozen meals. 

Thank you for your frozen food question. Click here to see where your frozen food comes from.

The New Ice Age Team