Which is best?
Canned and frozen foods are often seen as less nutritious than their fresh counterparts but that’s not always the case.
A recent Which? report demonstrated how they can contain more nutrients than their fresh counterparts.
They also have a longer shelf life and are usually cheaper so by using them you will be reducing your food waste and your shopping bill!
Here is a summary of their findings: there are a couple of surprising ones in there!
🍓 Frozen strawberries have the higher vitamin C content. Strawberries actually lose 30% of their vitamin C content within 3 days of harvesting;
🥔 Fresh, skin on new potatoes have the most vitamin B1;
🍵 Frozen and fresh peas are equally good with both having high vitamin C content;
🥬 Frozen spinach is best as fresh loses its vitamin C content when stored. Frozen also has lower folates;
🍄 Fresh mushrooms are best as the canning and freezing process can reduce vitamin content;
🍣 Canned salmon has much higher levels of vitamin D because you eat the bones;
🍑 Fresh peaches are best as the vitamin content is drastically reduced by canning and when frozen they are peeled losing flavonoids and fibre;
🍅 Canned tomatoes are best even though they have a lower vitamin c content than fresh because the powerful antioxidant lycopene is easy to absorb when they are in a tin;
🌽 Frozen sweetcorn has high antioxidant levels.
Out of the above, I always use frozen peas and sweetcorn; I also love frozen spinach and tinned tomatoes – although I also use a lot of fresh as well.
I will definitely be added some frozen strawberries (great for topping yogurt or adding to smoothies) and tinned salmon to my next shop!
Which are you go to frozen or tinned produce?
