Fresh vs. Frozen?

We’ve heard a few clients mention that “Fresh is always better than frozen” when it comes to fruits and vegetables. In it’s purest form, that statement is true. However, it can lead to some misconceptions when you apply it to today’s marketplace.

It really all depends where your fresh food comes from. If you are fortunate enough to have a nearby farm (or grow your own!) and can be assured that the food you are selecting is at the peak of ripeness and freshness, then all the better. There is no better source of food. But depending on where you live, the season, and the food you want, that is not always possible (in fact, it usually isn’t!).

What if you want strawberries in January in New England? Chances are, you won’t be finding any that were locally grown. The strawberries available to you will have been picked far away from you, and then stored in a warehouse. From there, they have been trucked or flown in from a great distance, taking more time. Possibly they have spent a day or two sitting at a distribution center in the process of changing hands one or more times. And … strawberries just don’t keep that long, so they will have been picked before they were ripe, or had other methods applied to keep them from spoiling. The “fresh” strawberries you buy at the supermarket … well, just aren’t fresh anymore.

If frozen strawberries were handled properly, they could have been picked at that peak of ripeness, frozen immediately, retaining most of their original flavor and nutrients. They would still be inferior to strawberries that were growing in sunny fields that morning, but on the other hand, they are far better than strawberries that were picked under less ideal conditions over a week ago.

I wish we all had access to organic, locally-grown produce year-round at the peak of freshness, but that just isn’t going to be possible for most people. Of course, you could always move to the tropics! *wink* But short of that, we should be aware of what our food choices are, and make the best decisions we can from the available choices.

Be healthy!