Love the site! I am interested in environmental impacts surrounding food types - frozen food seems to have a lot more packaging than fresh foods why is this?

Aside from the housing of branding, nutritional and storage/preparation information on packaging, there are many reasons robust packaging is necessary for frozen foods and in turn as many reasons freezing food is preferable.

When evaluating the practicalities of frozen food packaging, to ensure quality and less deterioration the rule is we should not let air in or moisture out. If you think of foods from their source to your plate whether they are chilled, frozen or fresh, if they are permeable and likely to leak or be damaged in transit or storage, they are usual packaged in a way that prevents this. Recent studies have shown that up to 30% of fresh foods are wasted in the storage and distribution so the packaging of frozen foods is designed to curb waste.

Whatsmore, the farming and harvesting of foods for the frozen food market is so efficient that even more waste is avoided. click here to see how waste is avoided with harvesting food for the frozen market. 

This is important not only for quality and contamination reasons, (for example raw and cooked food should not come into contact with each other), but we also know that it is difficult to separate smaller quantities of food for use, that is frozen together. Therefore things are often packaged to make all processes including the defrosting and cooking one that is easy to follow.

Individual frozen food manufacturers are likely to make their packaging as suitable as possible for the product, whilst ensuring the quality of the frozen food, balancing out the cost, the aesthetic and the effects on the environment. This covers all significant bases for them and helps towards a sound brand ethos when it comes to the environment, which as you are aware, has become of vital importance and focus in recent years. Click here for more info on frozen food and the environment

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

The New Ice Age Team