Storing, defrosting and cooking frozen foods safely

Frozen food – all you need to know about how to keep it fresh frozen

Freezing is a natural way of preserving food – we provide you with top tips to get the most from your frozen foods through safe storage and defrosting.

How does freezing preserve foods?

• It's impossible for bacteria to multiply on frozen food - which makes it safer than any other form of food preservation.
• Foods today are 'flash frozen'. This process, which freezes water in the food into smaller ice crystals, minimizes cell structure damage. Quick-freezing foods and then storing them at temperatures -18°C or lower slows the natural degradation process practically to zero.
• So, make sure you store your frozen food correctly, and it will retain its colour, texture, nutritional value and taste.

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Cooking Frozen Food
Crispy Duck from Frozen

theNewIceAge kitchen shows you how to cook beautifully succulent Duck from frozen.  Click here for our other recipes cooking frozen food. Or click here for great ideas on how to incorporate frozen food into your families everyday

 

 

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How can I store frozen foods safely?

Freezing naturally locks in nutrients and vitamins with no need for preservatives.

Follow the guidelines below to ensure that your frozen foods last longer and stay even fresher.

• All foods can be safely frozen, but some foods should not be frozen for quality reasons (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, cream etc).
• Frozen food stored consistently at -18°C or lower will remain safe indefinitely.
• Most domestic freezers should operate at temperatures -18°C or lower. As a general rule, if your freezer can't keep ice cream solid, its temperature is above the recommended level. 
• Always refer to the on-pack 'best before' date. The manufacturer's 'best before' date on frozen foods is a quality indicator and is the date until which the product will remain of peak quality (when stored at -18°C or below). For storage in a 3-star or 4-star freezer manufacturers will normally recommend 'store until best before date'.
• After the 'best before' date a reduction in eating quality may become evident, whilst the product remains safe to eat.
• Try to rotate foods; putting newly purchased items at the back of the freezer so older items are used first.
• Freeze your frozen food in appropriate containers, eg. freezer bags and airtight containers.
• Most foods obey the rule 'the colder the better'. Domestic freezers have a star rating indicating the temperature they are designed to operate at.
• The freezer star ratings are as follows¹
  
  
  

  *	Ice Box	-6°C
  **	Ice Box	-12°C
  ***	Ice Box	-18°C
  ****	Freezer	-18°C
  Fast Freeze Temp in a **** Freezer = -26°C

 

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How long does frozen food last?

Guides to how long each frozen food item will last in your freezer.

If your frozen food is packaged correctly and if your freezer remains on! On the packaging of a frozen food item there is often guidance stating how long the food can be stored using freezers of a given star rating. As a guide here are some suggested MAXIMUM storage times at -18°C for a variety of foods.²

Product	Practical Storage Life (in months)
Vegetables
Frozen Broccoli	15
Frozen Green Beans	18
Frozen Brussels sprouts	15
Frozen Carrots	18
Frozen Cauliflower	15
Frozen Corn on the cob	12
Frozen Peas	18
Frozen Potato Chips	24
Frozen Spinach	18
Raw meat and meat Products
Frozen Beef joints, Steaks	12
Frozen Beef mince	10
Frozen Lamb joints, chops	10
Frozen Pork joints, chops	6
Frozen Sausages	6
Frozen Bacon	2-4
Frozen Poultry	12
Fish and Shellfish
Frozen oily fish (herring, salmon, mackerel, etc)	4
Frozen fish, cod, haddock, etc	8
Frozen flat fish, sole, plaice, etc	10
Frozen Prawns, lobster, crab	6
Frozen Clams, oysters	4
Other Foods
Ice Cream	6

These figures refer to commercially frozen products; food frozen at home is unlikely to remain of high quality for the same length of time.

 

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Click here for what packaging best keeps your frozen food fresh and more details on storing your frozen food 

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Home Freezing

Home freezers are for storing pre-packaged frozen meals

Your home freezer does not freeze foods quickly enough to minimise foodcell damage because it does not get foods to freezing temperature quickly enough. Frozen foods and frozen meals from the supermarkets have been professionally and quickly flash frozen and so they retain their vitamins and nutrients, texture and colours as a result – the goodness is 'locked in' as they say. Your home freezer is not designed to freeze foods from your kitchen but to store frozen foods from the shops.

Fresh Frozen

Vegetables are frozen within hours of harvest

The ingredients in frozen meals and frozen food products canbe fresher than 'fresh' foods because they are frozen at harvest and also because they are frozen at their peak of quality. Also, frozen mealscan be some of the most cost saving quality foods around because they are produced in bulk. Supply and demand enables manufacturers to keep their cost down. Also, few ingredients spoil so the manufacturers do not need to charge you for the wastage! Frozen food products can contain more nutrients than fresh equivalents:

Flash Freezing seals in the Goodness

Frozen vegetables have been proven to often contain more Vitamin C

See below for info on how much Vitamin C is lost when 'fresh' vegetables sit around on shop shelves and in yourfridge. 'Fresh' spinach loses 77% of its Vitamin C after just two days! And, bear in mind that you would be very lucky to be buying spinachfrom a shop only two days from picking. Fresh vegetables are often a week old by the time they reach our shops.

 

Quantity of Vitamin C	(mg/100g)*
Freshly picked peas	22.1
Fresh peas (after 2 days)	14.1
Frozen peas	20.2
Freshly picked spinach	17.0
Fresh spinach (after 2 days)	4.1
Frozen spinach	14.0
Freshly picked french beans	16.4
Fresh french beans (after 2 days)	7.9
Frozen french beans	14.3

^*Source: Deutsches Tiefkuhlinstitut

 

Frozen Pre-Packaged Meals

Have the goodness locked in, ready to be eaten at no notice!

Frozen meals have surprisingly been around for much longer than you might imagine. Indeed the Romans and Ancient Chinese had been freezing their frozen foods in caves filled with snow for thousands of years before Clarence Birdseye made it accessible to all! Here are some of the benefits of frozen meals: 

• The quality and taste of your food is preserved, because quick freezing prevents undesirable large ice crystals from forming in the items. Ready meals are frozen to lock in the nutrients naturally.
• Your food is less likely to become 'freezer burned', which happens when air reaches the surface of the food. This is because the methods of packaging used are completely air tight in ready meals.
• Because pre-packaged frozen foods and ready meals are frozen at peak quality, they come to your table tasting better than foods frozen near the end of their useful life.
• Vitamin content in frozen foods and frozen ready meals also often higher as freezing slows down the loss of vitamins and nutrients that occurs over time.
• Domestic freezers are designed to store frozen food, rather than freeze fresh produce. So frozen ready meals take advantage of the latest technologies in freezing the freshness in!

Keep frozen food fresh

Three ways of keeping that 'just frozen' freshness

• When you're buying frozen food (see our top tips here), always check that the packaging is undamaged.
• Always buy frozen foods at the end of your shopping trip before check out and pack your frozen items together.
• Put frozen items in freezer as soon as possible.

Safe ways to defrost

Depending on how much time you have, there are three accepted ways to safely defrost frozen foods

• The purpose of thawing frozen foods thoroughly before cooking is to ensure that during cooking the food is heated sufficiently to kill harmful bacteria.
• There are three safe ways to defrost food:³
  1. In the refrigerator
  2. In cold water
  3. In the microwave^*
  ^*Most importantly, follow instructions from manufacturer
• It's best to plan ahead for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. The bottom of the fridge is ideal.
• For faster defrosting, place food in a leak proof plastic bag and immerse it in cold water. Change water every 30 minutes. After thawing, cook immediately.⁴
• For defrostingready meals always follow the instructions.

 

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Click here to see how best to defrost Christmas Turkey
Click here to see how to safely defrost frozen fish
Click here to see how to defrost frozen chicken 

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Cooking from frozen

Nowadays some frozen meals can be cooked straight from the freezer!

• Many ready prepared foods can be safely cooked directly from the frozen state because the manufactures have designed the cooking method to ensure that the food is properly cooked. Therefore, if the pack tells you to 'cook from frozen' it is important to do so, as this will give the best results. Always follow the cooking instructions on the packaging carefully.
• Always cook vegetables from frozen in order to keep the nutrients 'locked in'.

Refreezing thawed foods

Safety tips

• Refreezing thawed foods is not advised from a safety point of view
• Refreezing thawed foods is not advised from a quality point of view
• The main reason is to avoid the risk of improper defrosting methods, i.e. thawing at room temperature for too long a time or letting the thawed food get too warm before refreezing is started.⁵

Storing thawed foods

Thawed foods should be kept in the fridge

• Thawed foods should be treated as carefully as chilled foods, i.e. kept in the refrigerator
• Thawed frozen foods should be cooked as soon as possible
• Care should be taken to ensure that juices released after thawing do not drip onto the refrigerator surfaces - therefore, thawed meets should be stored covered at the bottom of a fridge for no more than 24 hours. Unless advised otherwise by the manufacturer.⁶

Click here for important tips on how to maintain your freezer

 

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^1,2,5,6,7 Consumer guide to frozen foods published as part of the European Union FAIR Programme, Concerted Action CT96 - 1189 "Maintaining the Quality and Safety of Frozen Foods Throughout the Distribution Chain"

^3,4 United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety & Inspection Service, Safe Food Handling Fact Sheet - www.fsis.usda.gov. October 2005. Accessed November 14, 2008.