A study by the University of Georgia shows that some frozen produce contains more vitamins than fresh produce. Ronald Pegg, associate professor of food science and technology at UGA, led the study. His team looked at the selected vitamin and mineral content of eight fruit and vegetables: blueberries, strawberries, broccoli, green beans, corn, spinach, cauliflower and green peas.
Nutrients now and later
They analysed the nutrient value of the produce on the day they were purchased and after the produce had been stored in a household refrigerator for five days. They also analysed the nutritional content of the same set of fruits and vegetables that had been packaged after freezing.
“The vitamins and nutrients in fruit and vegetables degrade over time, and we found that frozen fruit and vegetables may offer more nutrition than fresh, when storage is taken into account,” Pegg said. “Fruit and vegetables are going to have a different nutrient profile after storage than they had when they were taken from the field. They exspire; they age and they break down over time. There are oxidative stresses, microbial stresses and enzymatic stresses, and we end up seeing the loss of nutrient value from these stresses.”
Frozen produce had more vitamins
Pegg’s study showed that some frozen fruit and vegetables had higher levels of vitamin A, vitamin C and other folates, than fruit and vegetables that had been stored for five days.
“Freezing is nature’s pause button,” he said. “It helps maintain the nutritional value of fresh vegetables, even during storage.”
