This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Freezing can keep food fresh and safe to eat. Freezing lowers thefood temperature below zero degrees Celsius. That is the point wherewater turns to ice.
To start the freezing process, it is important to lower thetemperature to between minus fifteen and minus twenty degreesCelsius as quickly as possible. The faster the freezing process, thefresher the taste of the food.
Fruits and vegetables can be spread out inside the freezer. Oncethe food is frozen, it should be placed in containers and thenstored at a temperature of about minus twenty degrees Celsius.
Fruits are usually not cooked before they are frozen. This allowsthem to keep their fresh taste. The simplest way to prepare fruitsis to cut them up and place them in a container inside the freezer.In some cases it is better to permit the fruit to freeze beforeputting it in the container. This will keep it from sticking to thecontainer. This is called the “dry pack” method.
The second way is the “wet pack” method. The fruit is preparedalong with some of its liquid or juice. You can add some sugar tofruits that are naturally juicy. The sugar sweetens the fruit andbrings out its natural juices.
Vegetables are either cooked or blanched before freezing.Blanching means placing the vegetables in boiling water for a fewminutes and then quickly placing them into very cold water.Blanching slows down the natural chemical aging process. All extrawater should be removed before placing the vegetables intocontainers and freezing. Most foods can be stored frozen for up toone year.
Most freezers operate on electricity, although some work withkerosene and even solar energy as power sources. One problem is howto protect frozen food if the power suddenly stops. Generally,frozen food can be left unfrozen for twenty-four hours before itmust either be eaten or thrown away. In hot climates, the amount oftime may be only a few hours.
Once foods have been unfrozen, they should not be frozen again.There is a danger of food poisoning if food is frozen more thanonce.
You can get more information about freezing food from Volunteersin Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at w-w-w dotv-i-t-a dot o-r-g. (www.vita.org.) Next week we tell about canningfood.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by GaryGarriott.