The Wall Street Journal has a story about how frozen food, which many still think of “over-processed and overpriced, a wasteland of pizza rolls and tater tots,” is giving way to a new wave of products and innovation. And people are responding.
“According to recent figures released by Nielsen and Acosta, a Florida-based sales and marketing research group, respectively, year-to-year sales of frozen vegetables jumped 4.5% in 2017, and 32% of shoppers polled planned to buy more frozen food in the coming year,” The Journal writes. “Among their motivations: making meals more healthful, convenient and less wasteful.
“A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California, Davis suggests that most fresh produce is no more nutrient-rich than frozen. What’s more, especially outside prime harvest season, frozen vegetables, fruit and fish are often the more economical and sustainable choice. You know the pit you get in your stomach when you open the fridge and realize you have to toss a $5 bunch of Swiss chard you let wither to mush? That doesn’t happen with the frozen stuff.
Paul Greenberg, a seafood industry expert, tells the Journal that this also applies to seafood. In fact, especially seafood. He says that “blast freezing technology has improved so much the seafood you buy frozen is often more pristine than anything at the fish counter. ‘The truth is that a lot of consumers wind up eating frozen fish without realizing,’ he added. ‘If you’re buying Alaskan salmon in the dead of winter, there’s no way it’s fresh—it has just been defrosted to go into the fish case.’ So why not buy fish frozen and stash it away, preserved at peak quality, until you’re ready to cook it?”
“According to recent figures released by Nielsen and Acosta, a Florida-based sales and marketing research group, respectively, year-to-year sales of frozen vegetables jumped 4.5% in 2017, and 32% of shoppers polled planned to buy more frozen food in the coming year,” The Journal writes. “Among their motivations: making meals more healthful, convenient and less wasteful.
“A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of California, Davis suggests that most fresh produce is no more nutrient-rich than frozen. What’s more, especially outside prime harvest season, frozen vegetables, fruit and fish are often the more economical and sustainable choice. You know the pit you get in your stomach when you open the fridge and realize you have to toss a $5 bunch of Swiss chard you let wither to mush? That doesn’t happen with the frozen stuff.
Paul Greenberg, a seafood industry expert, tells the Journal that this also applies to seafood. In fact, especially seafood. He says that “blast freezing technology has improved so much the seafood you buy frozen is often more pristine than anything at the fish counter. ‘The truth is that a lot of consumers wind up eating frozen fish without realizing,’ he added. ‘If you’re buying Alaskan salmon in the dead of winter, there’s no way it’s fresh—it has just been defrosted to go into the fish case.’ So why not buy fish frozen and stash it away, preserved at peak quality, until you’re ready to cook it?”
- KC's View:
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I’ll buy that. If my freezer doesn’t have frozen shrimp in it, I tend to think of it as being empty … shrimp, of course, being one of the major food groups.
