Quick Freezing Is The Key

The quality of frozen meat depends on the shock of freezing and correct defrosting.

People are pressed for time and increasingly tend to consume frozen food, which is always at hand in the freezer. Is such meat as good as a fresh one?

Ana Penko, PhD, technologist at Pivka perutninarstvo, replies:

“Freezing extends the shelf life of food. People generally believe that frozen food is of a lower quality than the fresh one. That may be true to some extent, in particular, if freezing or defrosting of frozen food is not done properly. The most important thing is to freeze food as quickly as possible at the lowest temperature, which is difficult to achieve with household freezers. Industrial processes for food freezing utilize advanced technology to preserve food quality to the maximum. Shock freezers, as they are called, are used where freezing is performed at a very low temperature (less than -30 °C). The result is quick freezing with the formation of small crystals, which damage cell structures only to a small extent. Such food items when defrosted keep the original structure, color and juiciness as only small damage had been done to cell structures and the loss of vital ingredients (vitamins, etc.) is minimal. It is the method used at Pivka. Correct defrosting of food is also important; it should be done slowly in the refrigerator in the case of meat to minimize the loss of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) and preserve the food’s juiciness. The key is to freeze fresh and suitably packaged food (in vacuum packaging for example) to protect it from freezing burns and to slow down oxidation. A tip regarding vegetables. It is recommended to blanch vegetables first, which deactivates certain enzymes that would otherwise impair the sensory quality of food.