Is frozen fruit and veg OK?

[Bergkampsballs]

Hi, I'm trying to be as healthy as I can and have been having a lot of smoothies using frozen strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower straight from the freezer.

Are these safe to use or am I going to be consuming too many pesticides etc?

Cooking them before refreezing isn't really feasible but I can wash them and refreeze if that would make much difference?

[Eryl]

Not as healthy as eating the raw fruit as the freezing will break down the fibre which protects you from the sugar and as making them into smoothies will also do that to some extent also.

I limit my fruit intake to half a cupfull of blueberries each day but use frozen veg regularly.

[Bergkampsballs in reply to Eryl]

Yeah, that's why I use strawberries due to the low sugar content.

I'm kind of OK with the sugar side of things and more concerned about the pesticides or whatever else as the label on the broccoli for example says to cook before consuming.

[Nothing_but_books]

Frozen vegetables mostly have a warning not to eat them until they have been cooked to a certain temperature to destroy bacteria. Be careful. 😊

[Bergkampsballs in reply to Nothing_but_books]

Yeah, that's part of the reason why I was asking. The label on the broccoli says to cook thoroughly but realistically I'm not gonna cook it all before putting it back in the freezer to then put in smoothies.

I've been putting them in my smoothies straight from the freezer for months without any problems but I'm trying to work out if I'm really likely to cause myself any problems or not.

[Nothing_but_books in reply to Bergkampsballs]

Your choice, but me personally, I wouldn't do it. Country of origin labels say vegetables may be coming from anywhere in the world. Who knows what they're exposed to in shipping. Bacteria, parasites... Yikes.

How about cooking a whole batch, then freezing what you don't use -- flat so it's easy to break off pieces?

[Bergkampsballs in reply to Nothing_but_books]

Yeah, that's a fair point. I've started washing them hoping that should get rid of most of the bad stuff????

I do have a steamer though so could potentially steam and refreeze it all.