Tales from the land of frost: Swetha Sivakumar’s guide to frozen foods

The belief that frozen food is less healthy or flavourful dates back to 1913, when Fred Wolf invented the first home refrigerator. Back then, the food that was relegated to freezers was the kind that was already starting to spoil. In addition, the freezing process took several days, which led to large ice crystals being formed inside the freezer and on the food. These ice crystals damaged the cell walls of the food, so its juices would leak when the food thawed. Things got so bad that in the 1920s, the state of New York banned the use of frozen food in its prisons.

All that changed with Clarence Birdseye. The American entrepreneur and researcher, on assignment in Labrador, Canada, had noticed that the indigenous community of Inuit would cut holes in the ice, to catch fish in the lakes below during their harsh winter. The fish would immediately freeze in contact with the frigid subzero air. But when cooked later, it would taste just like fresh fish. Birdseye realised that quick freezing was the key to freshness. His two observations: freeze food of the highest quality and freeze it quickly, are the cornerstone for high-quality frozen food even today.

Birdseye set up his own frozen-seafood firm in 1922 (the brand name, Birds Eye, still exists, though ownership has changed several times since he sold his company in 1929). Were he alive today, he would be happy with the advances in freezing tech. Frozen vegetable and fruit companies are located close to fields so they can freeze the produce within hours of harvesting. Foods like peas and prawns also no longer stick together like a block because each item is flash frozen separately via the Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) process. Cryogenic freezing, which uses liquid carbon dioxide or nitrogen as a rapid cooling agent, can now freeze foods within minutes, keeping food even fresher.

What can you freeze? Pretty much any food. However, crunchy vegetables like lettuce and cucumber, get soggy when thawed. Tomatoes lose their texture. The traditional frozen veggies (peas, carrots, cauliflower etc) do go well with Indian cuisine, which prioritises cooked vegetables over eating them raw. Most vegetables are blanched before freezing to deactivate the enzymes inside, so they don’t mature after freezing, changing colour and flavour.

Yet, supermarket freezers seem devoted to stocking processed fried foods. They sell well. And those breaded outer layers provide added insulation to your nuggets and patties.

Meals like biryani and channa masala are also available in frozen form now. You may notice ingredients such as modified starches or acetylated starch adipate (INS 1422) on the ingredient list. These are added to prevent the starch from oozing out too much water when thawed. This also helps the dish retain freeze-thaw stability, the ability to resist shocks in temperature fluctuation. With the rise of clean label products, companies are trying to avoid using these starches.

For every frozen samosa available, there is a packet of frozen vegetable. The problem with fresh vegetables is that they start losing their nutrients over time during transport and storage. A 2017 study showed that nutritionally, frozen vegetables consistently outperformed refrigerated vegetables stored more than five days post-harvest. For most people, the biggest hurdle to eating well is the time needed to cut and prepare vegetables. Frozen food can help. My 80-year-old uncle was tired of eating rice for dinner. He now empties half a packet of frozen mixed veggies into a bowl, microwaves it, tops it with some dressing and eats it instead.