Does food lose its nutritional value when it’s frozen? The short answer: it depends. “There’s no clear winner,” says Dr. Ali Bouzari, who has done studies. Also, the difference in nutrient levels are too minor to make any real difference, he adds. Bouzari and his colleagues at the University of California at Davis compared the vitamin content of eight different fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables – and found no consistent differences.
Key Takeaways:
- Freezing can slightly alter the nutritional composition of fruits and vegetables, sometimes in favor of the frozen product and sometimes in favor of the fresh.
- frozen peas had less riboflavin than fresh peas; and frozen corn, green beans and blueberries had more vitamin C than their fresh counterparts.
- Frozen berries will also deteriorate when kept in a home freezer that’s opened and shut often, she said, so freeze fruits in a deep freezer or at the very back of a kitchen freezer.
“Freezing can slightly alter the nutritional composition of fruits and vegetables, sometimes in favor of the frozen product and sometimes in favor of the fresh, but over all, “there’s no clear winner,””