The invasion of Coronavirus has led to the current lockdown across countries of the world. This unprecedented move has created a sort of panic among people, and has resulted in people stocking up their kitchens for rainy days (panic buying as we call it). The thing about panic buying is that many of these people fail to take into consideration that some foods cannot stay refrigerated for long, or shouldn’t be frozen at all, if they are to maintain their nutritional integrity
Although, kitchen essentials are easily available, paranoia is riding far and wide among a whole lot of people. We hear people freezing their foods for future use since many foods have a short shelf life. While it is fine to freeze your dry fruits, ice creams and peas, there are many foods that are good before going in the freezer and not so good after coming out of the freezer.
Check out this list of foods that you must not put in the freezer if you want to get the most out of them.
Dairy Products
Milk is the first thing we want to stock up, however don’t pay heed to everyone’s suggestion to freeze cartons of milk. If you do, when you take it out and thaw it, it may curdle. Likewise, cheese will turn out to be crumbly and not so cheesy after all. Dairy products like milk, cheese and eggs should not be stored in freezer.
Fried Foods
One reason we love fries (such as potato chips, akara, fried yam etc) is because of their crunchiness. However, these fried foods are sure to lose that crunchiness if they are frozen. So, eat these snacks all to your heart’s content rather than saving it for later.
Noodles
Want to make noodles during lockdown? Cooked or uncooked, noodles and pasta won’t stay well in the freezer. They will turn mushy after defrosting them. Buy only those many packs that you are going to use soon.
Cucumber
Use frozen cucumber slices for your eyes only, not for your mouth. Cucumber, after thawing will be soggy and will most likely taste different.
Fruits
Only dried fruits or dry fruits are safe to store in freezer, not fresh fruits. Freezing them will change their structure, taste and bring down their nutritional value. We do not want that.
Coffee
Open coffee beans or ground coffee will catch that weird freezer smell and your coffee won’t taste the same. However, unopened coffee bags can still be stored in freezer for a couple of weeks. Coffee beans or ground coffee don’t stay well in freezer.
Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
It is true that we love to pair our sandwiches, chips, snacks with ketchup. If you fear that the supermarkets or retail stores will run out of it and hence, you’re planning to stock it in your freezer, please don’t. After defrosting it, you’ll see a mess with tomato paste, water and vinegar, all separated. That will be very heartbreaking.
Freezing these foods will negatively impact their consistency, texture and taste. So choose wisely the foods that you would want to put in your freezer.
It is not advisable to ‘panic buy’ fresh foods.