Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
01.13.2016
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The nutritionist Mariana Andrade explains about the nutritional quality of frozen foods.
With the rush and lack of time of modern life, frozen foods have been great allies in the daily lives of many people. Having frozen food is a way to save and having practicality as well as facilitating the selection of the menu, as food can be stored for relatively long periods.
Freezing is one of different ways to preserve food, keeping them in the most part, closer to their natural state. The function of freezing is to lower the temperature of the food to a point where chemical changes are diminished and the microorganisms do not proliferate. Thus, the deterioration of food is slowed.
But does the food loses its nutritional power?
Since the harvest will begin the processes that cause various types of changes in the plant. From the crop, changes in the composition and losses (or gains) nutritional occur anyway, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the type of plant, the nutrient in question and which process (storage at ambient temperature, cooling, cooking, freezing etc.) the plant will pass. This is because some nutrients are light sensitive, the temperatures and oxygen, for example.
"Although there are losses, many of the important components such as vitamins and antioxidants are preserved during the freezing process."
With regard to freezing, several studies (national and international) indicate that it is worth yes, consume frozen natural foods. Although there are losses, many of the important components such as vitamins and antioxidants are preserved during the freezing process. In some cases such as vitamin C, to preserve frozen foods keeps higher amounts of vitamin than room temperature for the same period. The same goes for vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and vitamin E (as alpha tocopherol). On the other hand, beta-carotene (an antioxidant present in component yellow-orange foods such as carrots, pumpkin, mango, papaya) suffer greater degradation when frozen. In a Brazilian study of fruit pulp, it was observed that frozen fruits can keep good content of polyphenols and their antioxidant activity, mainly of fruit acerola, cashew, siriguela, guava, mango, cherry and grape.
When we think of freezing, other factors are important to consider: storage time and processing prior to freezing. The longer the storage time, the greater the losses of nutrients. However, the retention of nutrients in foods also suffers interference when subjected to cooking and bleaching processes (known as "thermal shock"). Bleaching is a pretreatment that has as main objective the inactivation of enzymes that normally cause degradation of nutrients and / or deterioration of food during its preparation. Among its uses are maintaining the color, aroma and flavor of food, lower losses of soluble nutrients in water and better consistency.
There are foods that can not be frozen? Yes, with an important difference between processed foods and fresh foods. Among the processed, freezing can significantly affect the texture of foods that contain gelatin, mayonnaise and whipped cream, custards and puddings (if the recipe take cornstarch), yogurt and baked potatoes (if in the form of puree or sulflês , has usually no problems).
For fresh food, which will determine whether or not the food can be frozen will of how it will be used later. For vegetables that are eaten fresh, as leafy, tomato, cucumber and fresh fruits, thawing does not maintain the original texture, making it difficult to use in the usual way, as salad ingredients. But for some food, there are alternatives: freeze fresh fruit into pieces and add them still frozen the vitamins and juices are a great way to get these more creamy drinks, for example. Already the leaves used to flavor stews, such as parsley and cilantro can be frozen without problems. Liquefying only with a little water and tanks for use ice freezing. Once frozen, they may be stored in another container.
Source: iBahia
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.