To avoid food waste and enjoy your food all year round, you can freeze your fresh products yourself. Provided of course to do it correctly and to respect the shelf life.
⋙ Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish: our advice for freezing them well
How to freeze food well?
To properly freeze your food, there are a few basic rules to follow.
Prepare your food before freezing:
- Blanch your vegetables in boiling water. You avoid losing ¾ of their vitamins.
- Pass your fruit under a stream of water and wring it out. This avoids the route of entry for bacteria.
- Place your meat in a plastic container. It should be frozen less than twice unless you cook it again in the meantime.
- Fresh fish can be frozen up to 4 hours after being caught. So avoid if you bought it from the fishmonger.
- Cheeses: when they have matured, wrap them in plastic film.
Precautions :
- Avoid air when freezing your food. Remove all oxygen from the container or freezer bag. Your food keeps its humidity.
- Use containers designed for freezers. Choose them large enough because food expands when frozen.
- Pack your leftovers. Let them cool. Compact them well in your containers to avoid air bubbles and add a plastic film before the lid.
- In the freezer, separate the prepared dishes from the raw food. You avoid increasing the temperature of your freezer.
- Label your containers. Enter the date of freezing and the name of the product.
- Only freeze food that has never been frozen before. Otherwise, you put in the freezer a food full of bacteria, and you put yourself at risk of poisoning.
- Cut your food in small quantities. They freeze faster.
- Do not defrost your products at room temperature. Let your products defrost in the fridge or use the microwave.
Average freezer shelf life
To properly store your food in the freezer, it should be about -18 °. The average shelf life depends on the products.
- The bread : 1 month
- Pie base, cake batter, pastries: 2 months
- Ready meals, leftovers, sauces, soups: 3 to 4 months
- Oily fish (salmon, trout, etc.), mussels, crab (cooked), lobster (cooked): 2 months
- Scallops, shrimps: 3 months
- Lean fish: 6 months
- Minced meat, smoked meats, fresh sausages: 1 to 2 months
- Cooked meat (without sauce): 2 to 3 months
- Offal: 3 to 4 months
- Cooked meat with sauce: 4 months
- Cooked poultry without sauce: 4 months
- Pork (chops, roast): 4 to 6 months
- Chicken pieces cooked with sauce: 6 months
- Lamb (chop, roast): 6 to 9 months
- Beef steak, roast: 6 to 12 months
- Whole poultry: 12 months
- Bacon, cooked ham: 12 months
- Fruits (washed, dried, blanched): 12 months
- Vegetables (washed, dried, blanched): 12 months
Can we keep food in the freezer after its expiration date?
The expiration date (DLC), indicates the shelf life of the food. Beyond this date, the nutritional and sanitary quality of the food is no longer guaranteed: the product has lost its nutritional qualities and above all there is a risk of food poisoning.
The freezer can keep products that should be consumed in a few days for several weeks, if they were simply stored in the refrigerator. The principle of freezing is to reach -18 ° C in the heart of the food in less than 24 hours to prevent it from rotting. It therefore increases the shelf life of food. But beware, it does not allow you to place food in a sort of anti-bacterial safe.
If the deadline for your frozen food has passed, it is possible to consume it provided you do so very quickly after thawing (the same day).
Foods that don't freeze
- Eggs : freezing them intact can cause the shell to burst. After cooking (hard-boiled eggs, mimosa, etc.), they will be hard or rubbery when you want to eat them. However, you can freeze the egg whites (but not the yolks).
- Fruits rich in water: melon, watermelon, strawberry … fruits rich in water and fiber do not freeze. This alters their texture, firmness and taste quality.
- Water-rich vegetables: lettuce, tomato, cucumber …, like fruits, vegetables rich in water and fiber lose their texture, their crunchiness, their flavor and their taste after freezing. Instead, opt for soups that you can freeze.
- Fresh and soft cheeses: (goat cheese, herbs, yoghurts …) and (epoisses, maroilles, camembert …), are rich in water, and therefore very little resistant to freezing. They risk crumbling, losing their flavor, their taste, and becoming floury …
- The tubers: potatoes, parsnips, raw rutabagas … must be kept cool to avoid germination. Freezing alters their nutrients and mineral content.
- The sauces : by freezing your sauces, you risk having curdled products, without flavor or smoothness.
- Dessert creams: like sauces, creams do not freeze, at the risk of seeing their texture, flavor and smoothness altered at the time of defrosting.
⋙ 10 foods you should never freeze
Read also :
⋙ How to store the potatoes to keep them longer?
⋙ Rosés of meadows, porcini mushrooms, chanterelles … How to freeze mushrooms?
⋙ How to freeze bread well?