National Frozen Food Month

March is National Frozen Food Month in the United States.

Lengthening the life of fresh food by cooling it down is hardly a new idea. Food, both vegetable and meat, has been preserved in winter months by placing it in cooler areas, with such as natural caves and dug cellars. Freezing food outright is more difficult, although winter frosts have been used to do this naturally.

When food is frozen, decomposition slows down as any residual moisture is frozen, which slows down the growth of most bacteria. Food can be mechanically frozen, which is slow, or cryogenically, which is fast. The faster food is frozen, the better it retains its structure and texture once thawed out.

Modern freezing started in the 19th century and advances over the years allow foods to be frozen extremely quickly, allowing food to be frozen immediately after harvesting. Frozen fruit and vegetables can be better nutritionally than fresh ones, as frozen foods are frozen within hours of harvesting whilst fresh foods are often at least a few days old by the time they make it into a shop to buy. Freezing the food quickly, both in length of the freezing process and soon after harvest, helps preserve its nutritional value.

National Frozen Food Day

National Frozen Food Day is on March 6th in the United States.

Frozen food is hardly a new concept. In cold countries, using the winter chill to freeze foods has been used for centuries. This is, of course, a concept that doesn't translate too well to warm countries, without the use of artificial freezing; however, frozen foods were still being shipped prior to the advent of home freezers, such as frozen poultry from Russia to Britain in the 19th century, which didn't start spreading until the mid 20th century.

In 1929, Clarence Birdseye introduced the concept of flash freezing, having noticed how foods that were quickly frozen tasted fresh when they thawed out. Today, frozen foods are commonplace, and an integral part of most modern cooking, allowing foods to be kept edible for longer.

Flash frozen fruit and vegetables can actually be fresher than "fresh" ones when they are purchased in a supermarket. Most fresh foods take several days to arrive at their destination; frozen ones are frozen within hours of harvesting. This makes them better nutritionally - assuming, of course, that the frozen foods don't have preservatives added to them.