The benefits of frozen vegetables and fruits. Benefit or harm: Frozen products VS Fresh is useful if there are frozen vegetables

Nature, as you know, gave humanity by many benefits. But it so happened that there are no such places in the world, where any vegetables, fruits and berries would be grown all year round. However, the scientist scientists invented freezing the gifts of the earth, so that at any time it was possible to use them. Freezing is a suitable solution for various fruits to be spoiled for a long time. But do they preserve their primary useful qualities?

Who and why did you come up with frosting vegetables?

In winter, growing vegetables is almost impossible. Of course, greenhouse owners can afford year-round breeding of various plants, including fruitful. But those who do not have such conditions solve the problem differently. Of course, for this you need to prepare in advance: grow either buy fresh products and freeze them at home.

Nowadays, it is not necessary to hammer my head and out of the skin to climb to ensure ourselves necessary vitamins In the cold season - everyone can go in a grocery and buy ready-made frozen vegetables. In addition, this is the same in its own way. convenient way storage of products, like drying, surviving, marination, smoking, sugar, etc., with their advantages and disadvantages.

Useful properties of frozen vegetables

About the benefits of products subjected to freezing process, almost every consumer has heard. There are really many positive characteristics of such products, but often some facts turn out to be overly embellished to force a gullible buyer to fork out. So, what is the beneficial use of vegetable fruits after freezing?

• Quality. Not all people have the opportunity to grow vegetables on their own, so, standing in the store in front of the shelves with fresh and frozen vegetables and solving what of them is better, you definitely worth to give preference to the second. The so-called "fresh" products before getting on the counters, have done a considerable path from other areas or even from other countries. Hence, useful qualities They have dressed.
• Replenishment of vitamins. The human body has always needed and will need vitamins that are contained only in vegetables. During the decline of forces, stress and conventional winter avitaminosis can not do without vitamins of vegetable origin. Regardless of your home products or purchased, in the winter season for the body, it will be more effective for the body, just a frostled fruit instead of one time who has been played for some time.
• Diet. The lack of vitamins may occur in that situation if you decide to suddenly sit on the diet. In the summer, your diet in this case, most likely, will consist of some fruits and vegetables, and what to do in winter when and that is not? You need to use frozen products. In addition, there are more and more new diets based on frozen vegetables, as it is much more convenient and more efficient compared to other weight loss methods (such nutrition really has low calorie).
• Maximum readiness for use. The use of such products eliminates the consumer from the need to additionally move the fruits. Of course, it is impossible to ensure that any product purchased by you has passed the necessary processes of purification before freezing, but a conscientious and sensible manufacturer who puts its reputation in priority, will necessarily take care of the purity of the product produced.
• Alternative. Just frozen fruits will not only become a worthy alternative to fresh, but also successfully replace them when preparing a variety of diverse dishes (salads, soups, stew, etc.).

Negative influence of these products

Unfortunately, despite the fact that frozen vegetables retain almost all vitamins and trace elements, they can have a negative effect on health. But the reason for this is not always the vegetables themselves.

• To begin with, it should be said that if any problem is in vegetables, this is from the fact that during the freezing retained or already fracture. And this in turn indicates disallicability or unscrupulousness of the manufacturer. As a result, you may encounter a small stomach disorder and symptoms characteristic of it.
• What else depends on the manufacturer (and indicates precisely for a dismissive attitude towards potential customers), this is the fact that some product is subjected to secondary frost. That is, between the first and second freezing vegetables for some time in the usual condition. Even if a little time passed, be sure - it did not benefit them, before you spoiled product. How it will affect health depends on how many vitamins have lost the fruits and how many harmful substances they picked out of ambient Or began to form themselves.
• As you know, with any processing fresh fruits usually change their original view. To give the product a presentable appearance, manufacturers add some preservatives and nutritional supplements. As far as it is harmful, it is difficult to say; It depends on what was used.
• But the realizers of the supplied products can affect the quality of frozen vegetables in a different way. You probably know how sellers increase the weight of the goods, filling it with water with a syringe. To do the same with vegetables in the package is not harder. But along with this water, harmful substances and microorganisms can also have, which can even lead to severe poisoning.
• If you are planning to use food cooking products, experts recommend cooking vegetables for one-time use. Moreover, they are undesirable to defrost before cooking. Surely you have a question: why? Yes, in frozen state, the fruits retain almost all their trace elements. But they begin to deteriorate immediately after thawing.

How to draw the properties of frozen products to yourself?

If you prefer the use of frozen vegetables, then you should remember the need for careful storage and proper use of products. After buying, it is better to immediately go home to defrosting the goods. They should be stored, of course, in the cold. As already mentioned, you should not give in to the desire to defrost vegetables before cooking.

Another advice: Solitize dishes 10 minutes before readinessThis will help preserve their positive qualities. Will askance: Fail or cook vegetables? In any case, they will lose some of the vitamins, but during boiling loss will be less.

In general, it is impossible to say that frozen vegetables are especially useful or excessively harmful. The way they affect the body depends mostly from the manufacturer and consumer. Therefore, it is best to buy a product of a popular brand, which will not allow his reputation suffered, therefore, its product is really high-quality and harmless.

It is often believed that frozen foods (like vegetable mixes from the package and freshly frozen meat) are less useful and significantly inferior to ordinary food in its nutritional and vitamin profile. Say, in the freezing "solid chemistry" and there is nothing useful. However, this is not quite so, and in the reality "fresh" fish, meat and vegetables from the supermarket can even be more frozen.

The reason for this is the fact that delivery of products to the place of sale may take weeks. Vegetables and fruits are cut long before readiness and rusted in the transportation process, plus are processed by the compositions that prevent the formation of mold and reproduction of microbes. Not to mention that salmon grown in Chile physically does not live to a supermarket in distant Russia without freezing.

How do frozen foods?

In most cases, shocked frost is a typical method of industrial production of frozen products (including fruits, vegetables, fish and meat). Unlike a conventional refrigeration chamber, requiring up to 2-3 hours for freezing, aggressive blowing of food by air flow temperature minus 35 ° C provides freezing of the product in 20-30 minutes.

The main advantage of this technology is that the shock frost interferes with ice crystallization and prevents the destruction of the product texture, being the most efficient method to preserve freshness and the original taste. It is also important that vegetables for shock freezing are cut into the most peak and at the maximum level of maturation - unlike the "fresh" vegetables from the supermarket.

Despite the fact that frozen vegetables before the process of freezing pass thermal processing - For example, green vegetables (primarily broccoli and podcol) are hampered by boiling water and ascorbic acid solution for color saving - scientific research Show that it practically does not affect their vitamin and mineral profile.

In fact, some of the water-soluble vitamins (first of all the vitamins of the group B and) lost during the shock freezing of products (2) would still be lost in the case of conventional cooking of vegetables - the aforementioned broccoli and the pollar beans before use will have to be prepared. In turn, fresh frozen meat is not different from the usual profile of nutrients.

How to cook frozen foods?

The best method of cooking frozen vegetables is the cooking board in a double boiler or in a pan with a pallet. After 5-7 minutes, the vegetables are ready to use as ingredient to dishes - for example, for roasting or extinguishing with meat. Frozen green pea Or corn can be simply boiled in boiling water in 2-3 minutes - the presence of peel will protect against flushing vitamins.

However, frozen meat and fish before cooking is recommended to pre-defrust for several hours at room temperature (and high-quality it is best to defrost in a conventional refrigerator chamber). This will save the texture of the product - when defrosting beef or salmon in microwave oven They will become much stringent.

Frozen vegetables - minuses and harm

The main minus of frozen products is that they can be dropped only once. If for any reason, vegetables, meat or fish were randomly frozen in the supermarket, and then again "addressed to the ice", then taste and textural qualities of such products will be practically destroyed. Especially critical is it for frozen fruits.

Also, when heated frozen semi-finished products, there may be harmful to health transhira - however, it is only a matter of frozen burghers, lasagans, pizza, nuggets and other fast food, originally containing cheap and low-quality vegetable fats (for example, refined corn or).

Composition of frozen mixtures of vegetables

Note that the so-called "Hawaii mix" (the composition of such a frozen mixture includes rice, green peas, corn and sweet pepper) - it is extremely difficult to call a useful or dietary product. The only source of vitamins in it is red pepper - neither corn, nor polka dot, neither, especially white rice, they do not possess them at all.

Unfortunately, the share of rice in the composition of such "vegetable" mixes often exceeds the share of frozen vegetables, while such rice is frankly high. Carbohydrates also make up more than half of the mass of sweet corn, sweet pepper and young peas. As a result, the "Hawaiian mixture" is not the most useful choice for a diet on frozen vegetables.

Frozen products: how to buy the best?

Before buying frozen products, it is recommended to carefully examine the packaging and a package in which vegetables or meat are packaged. The composition should be listed exclusively "ordinary" ingredients (that is, the vegetables and fruits themselves), but not vegetable oils, starch, and other Fastfud satellites - most often frozen semi-finished products will be worse than their fresh analogs.

A package with frozen vegetables should not resemble a piece of ice - if you do not physically "try" single fragments, in no case do not buy a similar product. The likelihood is that it was frozen again - in this case, the contents will be suitable exclusively for the preparation of cream soup or casserole, since the texture will be destroyed.

***

Despite the fact that frozen foods are often considered harmful, the content of vitamins in freshly frozen vegetables is almost identical. In turn, the purchase of frozen meat and fish (especially salmon) is the only way to get a quality product for thousands of kilometers from the place of cultivation of animals. However, frozen meat is important to defrost gently.

Scientific sources:

1. Frozen Food
2. Frozen Vegetables Are Hot!,

And it is in the midst of summer, when everything is fresh and cheap, take - I do not want! Surprise caused by this fact did not find a response among colleagues: it turned out, many of them also buy frozen vegetables all year round. Causes are simple: it is fast, convenient, relatively useful and at the same time do not take to bathe in the kitchen.

Food for busy and lazy

Today, when women remain less and less time to keep household, semi-finished products have become for many owners a good way out. Vivid sachets with frozen vegetable mixtures are especially attractive: I poured out on the pan - and after 10 minutes a delicious and useful stew for dinner is ready!

Frozen vegetables have indisputable advantages, and you will not argue with it:

* High quality and safety. Before getting into freezing chambers, all the fruits pass a strict inspection, and only vegetables and fruits of high quality and a certain degree of maturity are allowed to freeze. An important moment: only seasonal vegetables and fruits are used for freezing, and therefore the concentration of benefit and taste in them is the maximum, chemical additives and nitrates. Minimum amount.

* Naturalness. When freezing products, dyes, nutritional supplements, taste amplifiers, preservatives and other achievements of the chemical industry are not used.

* Convenience and speed of preparation. Thoughtful manufacturers were already waved, cleaned, chopped vegetables and even mix them in the desired proportion. The task facing the consumer is minimal: prepare the contents in accordance with the recommendations on the package and with pleasure to eat!

* Diversity. A wide range of vegetables and fruits - both "mono" and in the form of mixtures - makes it possible to quickly and without having to diversify the menu. Mixtures with asparagus, podcaty, mushrooms are very popular. Sature creative can combine themselves different kinds Ice cream products, and those who are not used to fantasize in the kitchen, successfully use ready-made mixtures.

Do no harm

Despite such a wide range of all kinds of advantages, experts are confident: buying ice cream in the summer not only inexpedient for economic considerations (see the "KP" reader), but also stupid!

The lack of vitamins is particularly sharply felt at the end of winter and in the spring - here at this time we come to the rescue of a variety of frozen mixtures, "says the nutritionist Larisa Butkova. - and, despite the fact that nutritional value Frozen vegetables are well preserved with long-term storage, as the time from the moment of their collection to freezing is as short as possible, I can not imagine how you can buy similar mixtures in the summer.

According to the nutritionist, the main problem lies in the fact that Ukrainians perceive frozen vegetables not as a seasonal replacement fresh, but as an empty independent dish, but it is fundamentally incorrect. For example, in Europe, many nutritionists strongly recommend using various frozen vegetables daily, but solely in the winter and spring time.

For us, vegetables from the package are not a surrogate, designed to replace the usual cabbage

ki, cabbage and tomatoes, and a new dish. However, a nutritionist says, modern Ukrainians have useful food addictions, and most importantly are a relatively low demand for frozen potatoes.

If we are quite comparable to the consumption of frozen vegetables, we can eat much less potatoes from the freezer than them, "says Butkova. - Our compatriots fryer potatoes (peeled and chopped with straw) is perceived as a fast food, and not as daily homemade food, and here we are absolutely right!

Make the mixture more useful

During freezing, even if it is fast and deep, some of the vitamins and trace elements are still lost and energy value Product is reduced. The greatest vitamin losses during frozen vegetables relate to vitamin C - up to 25 percent. The losses of other vitamins are less significant and are within 10 percent.

Make a dish of frozen vegetables is more useful simple: enough to add fresh fresh. As we have already agreed, the summer-autumn period is not in general - at this time you need to use exceptionally fresh products. In winter, you can (and you need!) Add fresh carrots, onions, garlic - they are sold all year round and are quite accessible at a price even for a wallet of the average Ukrainian.

Photo Maxim Lyukov.

Tips "KP"

The optimal shelf life of frozen vegetables and fruits is to six months. The smaller the product lay frozen, the better.

Give the preference to vegetables that have undergone rapid deep freezing at a temperature of -35 degrees (this is indicated on the package). Such frost preserves vitamins in the product at the maximum.

If frozen vegetables stick together into a homogeneous mass, do not buy it - this suggests that the product is deficked in the process of storage and transportation, and it is quite possible, more than once.

Do not defrost vegetables under a jet of hot water - so you can wash everything useful that they still have left.

If you have problems with gastrointestinal tract, heart, gastritis, swelling, then the frozen mixture is better not to fry, but cook.

Because "KP"

Now you can buy:

tomatoes - 10 UAH / kg,

bulgarian pepper - 10 UAH / kg,

cauliflower - 9 UAH / kg,

asparagus - 15 UAH / kg,

carrots - 5 UAH / kg,

zucchini - 4 UAH / kg.

Thus, the simplest calculations show that a vegetable mixture prepared by itself will cost, depending on the ingredients of 8-10 UAH. / Kg. That is, buying mixes, we overpay two or three times - this is our fee for your own laziness.

Cash

How much frozen vegetables and mixtures are in the supermarket *

Potatoes Fries (for weight) 17.75 UAH / kg

Sparazhny beans (for weight) 19.38 UAH / kg

Broccoli (for weight) 27.38 UAH / kg

Blend Andalusian (carrots, asparagus, corn, polka dot - for weight) 15.75 UAH / kg

Podkolkaya bean (packaged) 37.73 UAH / kg

Green peas (packaged) 28.92 UAH / kg

Broccoli (packaged) 41.08 UAH / kg

Vegetables for frying (packaged) 30-40 UAH / kg

TO THIS TOPIC

Home frost: for and against

Today there is no problem in the winter to freeze vegetables yourself - most importantly, have a roomy freezer home. Many hostesses come exactly that - after all, this method allows to significantly save (see the CP ".). In addition, if vegetables for freezing are grown on their own garden, you can be sure that only the best fruits went to the winter reserves.

The minus lies in the fact that during home freezing, vitamins are lost due to low temperature. The mixtures prepared in industrial conditions in this case won: they are prepared by the technology of fast frost. Low temperature and high freezing speed provide the formation of very small ice crystals that do not damage the structure of vegetables and fruits, which guarantees the preservation of taste, forms and the benefits of nature gifts.

IN modern world Women remains very little time to keep household. But it is impossible to leave the family hungry. That is why frozen foods in bright packages are becoming increasingly popular. However, do not everyone know about the dangers or benefits of such products.

Experts argue that many vitamins are stored in frozen products. After all, time from the time of the collection of vegetables and to their freezing, the maximum reduced. This allows most vitamins to stay in vegetables. However, some species useful substances All the same dying.

With a high temperature, vitamins are oxidized. And therefore the dish of frozen products becomes less useful. However, this can be corrected. To do this, add fresh food to frozen vegetables. For example, onions, carrots and so on. Then the dish will turn out to be delicious and helpful.

In the freezing of products, Vitamin C is most reduced. This applies to cabbage, broccolas, peppers, green peas and so on. Other vitamins are also reduced in frozen vegetables, but in smaller quantities. That is why change fresh vegetables It is not recommended for frozen foods. Everyone understands that dumplings cannot be made only from pure meat. After all, the price of frozen dumplings does not match their filling. However, many people are tormented by the question of whether frozen foods are useful with the other stuffing. Experts claim that in such products as dumplings there is nothing but the dough on water and ordinary potatoes.

As for frozen pancakes, they have practically no harmful substances. However, such dough cannot be used daily. In the test, from which pancakes are made, many dyes, emulsifiers and stabilizers. These allowed nutritional supplements are needed to mix multiple dry parts. However, this leads to the fact that a person does not receive the desired amount of vitamins.

Many people ask a question on how long you can store frozen foods. The shelf life of frozen products is no more than six months. However, it must be remembered that the smaller the product is stored in a frozen form, the better. After all, ice crystals destroy the structure of the product. For this reason, frozen foods that are stored for a long time are losing vitamins and become useless for humans. Such products can only quench the feeling of hunger. But vitamins after the use of frozen foods that have been kept for a long time, the person will not receive.

Look carefully on the packaging and the condition of the product before buying. If the products are stuck, this may mean that they have already been defined and frozen again. It is better to abandon such products. Also look at the packaging quality. Carefully learn the label on the packaging of frozen products. It should contain the manufacturer's address, product name, shelf life, date of manufacture, and so on. If the inscription on the product label is unclear or blurred, it is better to abandon the purchase of this product. Vegetables that have undergone deep freezing contain more vitamins than other frozen foods. Deep freezing occurs at a temperature of minus thirty-five degrees Celsius. This should be indicated on the package.

People who suffer from gastritis, stomach ulcers and other diseases associated with the gastrointestinal tract are recommended to refuse frozen food. In the extreme case, you can use frozen vegetables. However, they must be boil, not fry. Never defrost products under a jet of hot water. This contributes to the reduction of vitamins in products.

Freezing is a great way to store products. But such food can bring both benefit and be harmful to the body. It is important to learn how to choose frozen foods to choose from such a meal to get vitamins and important trace elements.

There are constantly disputes about the benefits and harm of ice cream products. Fruits, greens, vegetables are sources of vitamins, but with incorrect processing, without compliance with storage conditions, they lose their properties. The amount of vitamins decreases, some of them are oxidized. The site contains a useful memo "", it will help extend the freshness of the products and keep their taste.

To extend the shelf life, chemicals that negatively affect manufacturers are added to manufacturers. human body. So that useful components are preserved as much as possible, you need to learn how to correct food defrosting.

Production of frozen products

• selection in size, quality;
• the washing up;
• removal of bones, peel, fruits;
• blanching;
• cooling;
• weighing;
• freezing;
• packing, marking, packaging.

Freezing of meat products

Frozen vegetables and fruits

Frozen meat, bird, fish are extremely popular. They are stored longer if the processing was done in sires.

How to choose high-quality frozen foods