Frozen is the New Fresh

Do you spend hours wandering the fresh aisles in the supermarket? Take your time over tins and packets? Then totally bypass the frozen section? Well it’s time to take a look down those freezer aisles because frozen food is making a comeback! The unimaginative and budget image of the frozen ‘meal’ is a thing of the past. Companies have refreshed both the ingredients and the packaging with new ranges being launched which are reinvigorating this space. No longer a poor man’s dinner, the frozen ready meal has had a shake up and is starting to catch the eye of consumers!

The research consultancy kantar reported that the value of frozen food sales increased 6.1% last year, making it the fastest-growing food category in Britain. The rise of time-poor, working parents wanting to give their little ones healthy, nutritious meals means that the frozen food aisles are now becoming the best place to look. The choice of baby food products now available in the supermarkets can be quite overwhelming for parents but if you’ve never considered a frozen meal yet, let us tell you why you should!

Nutritional benefits…

Frozen food manufacturers are proactively promoting the benefits of fast-freezing produce in retaining nutritional values and argue that frozen is better than fresh. Blueberries have 3 times more Vitamin C and frozen spinach has 25% more Vitamin E when frozen versus fresh after three days. The effort to cut salt and sugar, often used as preservatives, along with other less beneficial ingredients, also appears to be resonating with customers who like their food healthy as well as convenient.

Freezing as a preservation method is truly one of the healthiest. However, it fell out of favour when other methods came to the fore. In the baby food market particularly, there was a massive shift towards pouches and jarred foods. The success of these being that they offered convenience and a long shelf life that even rivalled frozen.

Some pouches have a shelf life of up to two years because they have been heat pasteurised which means they have been heated to high temperatures, often 90 – 120 degrees. This is done to kill off nasties but, in the process, the good stuff that helps babies to grow and develop is also lost. In addition, the full flavours of the food and the smell are hugely diminished so they do not provide a sensory experience, which we know is so important when children are first introduced to food.

Tidy Tot is passionate about Sensory Weaning and has produced advice for parents on how to engage all your baby’s senses during weaning to develop happy and confident little eaters. And, while you and your baby focus on your Sensory Weaning adventure, you can relax safe in the knowledge that Tidy Tot has the bibs you need to minimise the clean-up operation afterwards!

Why Kidchen choose frozen…

When we started developing Kidchen meals, we always saw them as being frozen. This was for its many benefits, but we were worried about the negative connotations after years of being told that ‘fresh is best’. Going forward, we must now learn to re-train our brains and explore and celebrate frozen with its new innovation and exciting flavours. Kidchen’s meals sit perfectly beside the new frozen ranges of Deliciously Ella, By Ruby, Amy’s Kitchen and Itzu. The blast freezing process preserves all our meals, which locks in freshness, flavour and nutritional value and means you get the longest possible shelf-life at home. There is no waste and absolutely no compromise on the taste and texture of the food.

So, if you believe in sustainable eating, zero waste, getting the most for your money and enjoying really delicious food, it’s time to embrace frozen. It really is the new fresh!

By Sarah Edwards and Victoria Dixon Co-founders of Kidchen

Visit kidchen.co.uk to find out more about our healthy meals for kids made with organic produce, meat and sustainably caught fish.