Can all food be frozen? When can food be put in the freezer and when can it not? Do you have doubts?

The hustle and bustle of everyday life, leaves a lot of us stuck for time when it comes to meal prep. Making enough food to last a few days is very efficient and enables us to cook once and have leftovers frozen to save for later in the week. Being able to freeze our meals, allows for less cooking time when all we have to do is defrost and reheat. However not everything can be frozen. Let’s take a look.

 

1. Milky products: Milky products or milk itself should not be frozen. Milk is homogenized, so when frozen the fat will separate and form chunks in the milk. Also if placing liquids in the freezer like a carton of milk, the liquid will expand so ensure that you remove some of the liquid before placing it into the deep freeze.

2. Soft cheese with a high water content like cottage cheese or cream cheese will lose it’s texture when removed from the freezer and return to room temperature.

3. Eggs cannot be frozen as they expand and this causes the shell to explode and let’s bacteria enter.

4. Some fruit: We recommend fresh fruit and veg whenever possible. Although fruit like berries can be frozen, the problem is that when frozen the berries can lose some of their properties and texture.

5. Some vegetables: Any vegetables that you wish to eat raw should not be frozen. It’s fine to freeze peas, carrots, spinach etc that we plan to cook once removed from the freezer. However freezing fresh water rich vegetables like lettuce, rocket and fresh spinach makes them turn soggy and limp.

6. Freezing cooked rice isn’t the best idea either, as it becomes mushy and tasteless when reheated.

Remember never to defrost and refreeze! This can be particularly dangerous with meat and poultry and lead to food poisoning. Now that you are wiser, use your new found knowledge to know better what and what not to freeze :)