Are frozen vegetables less nutritious than fresh ones?
Are frozen vegetables healthier than fresh vegetables?
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Transcript
SPEAKER 1: Some say frozen veggies are less nutritious than fresh ones. So let's take walk through the wild and wonderful world of flash freezing. First of all, when vegetables are chosen for freezing, they're picked at the peak of their ripeness, which is also the peak of their nutritional value. But before they're frozen, they're dunked in boiling water and quickly cooled to preserve their quality and to get rid of dirt and organisms. This is a process called blanching.
So enzymes found in veggies help them grow and ripen, but after peak ripening, these enzymes will begin to break down the vegetables and reduce their nutritional value. Blanching deactivates this enzyme-induced breakdown, and only causes a slight loss of some water soluble vitamins. And when frozen, veggies will maintain their quality for a little over a year. So thanks to enzymatic deactivation, your frozen veggies may very well be nutritionally better off than fresh ones that have been sitting on the shelf too long after peak ripening.
So yeah, frozen is a go.
So enzymes found in veggies help them grow and ripen, but after peak ripening, these enzymes will begin to break down the vegetables and reduce their nutritional value. Blanching deactivates this enzyme-induced breakdown, and only causes a slight loss of some water soluble vitamins. And when frozen, veggies will maintain their quality for a little over a year. So thanks to enzymatic deactivation, your frozen veggies may very well be nutritionally better off than fresh ones that have been sitting on the shelf too long after peak ripening.
So yeah, frozen is a go.