10
Tips on Freezing Food
•
As with storing fresh foods, suitable packaging, correct
temperature and food hygiene will enhance the quality
of the food you are freezing.
•
Avoid putting hot foods into the freezer. First let them
cool until they reach room temperature.
•
Make sure that all foods for freezing are of a high
quality, and suitable for freezing.
•
Use packaging material that is odourless and airproof
(such as plastic bags) to store food in so different foods
can be mixed without affecting the quality. Make sure
that it is airtight. Leaking packaging will dehydrate the
products and lead to loss of beneficial vitamins.
•
Keep the surface of the packaging dry: this keeps the
packs from freezing together.
•
Mark packages with the kind of food contained and the
date of storage.
•
Food needs to be frozen quickly, so it is best to freeze
small portions whenever possible and make sure
that they are as cold as possible before storage. The
recommended maximum weight for each portion is
2.5 kg.
•
Keep food which is fresh away from food which is
already frozen, if you need to freeze fresh food every
day, make sure that it is in small portions to prevent this.
•
DO NOT exceed the maximum load for freezing: which
is given as 11 kg / 24 hours (see data badge for details).
•
Write the expiry date and food names on the outside of
the packaging so you can be assured of the food type
and when it is safe to eat.
•
Take food from the freezer to defrost when needed.
Defrosted food cannot be refrozen unless it is cooked.
•
DO NOT put too much fresh food into the freezer
at once. This could go beyond the freezer’s cooling
capacity
(see ‘Technical Data’)
.
•
When storing commercially frozen foods, please follow
these guidelines:
•
Always follow manufacturers’ guidelines for the
length of time you should store food for. DO NOT
exceed these guidelines!
•
Try to keep the length of time between purchase
and storage as short as possible to preserve food
quality.
•
Buy frozen foods, which have been stored at a
temperature of –18 °C or below.
•
Avoid buying food which has ice or frost on the
packaging. This indicates that the products might
have been partially defrosted and refrozen at
some point: temperature rises affect the quality of
food.
•
Should there be a power cut, or the freezer /
refrigeration appliance fail for any length of time
you may need to remove food from the freezer
and store in a cold, hygienic place (i.e. garage or
out house area) until the power is restored, or the
appliance is repaired.
•
To prevent undue temperature rises; you should
wrap the foods in layers of insulating material,
such as newspaper, to help to maintain their
temperature. It is also important that any food
affected by this situation should be either
consumed or cooked and refrozen (where suitable)
soon afterwards in order to prevent health risks.
•
Layers of newspaper can also be used to help keep
foods cold while you are defrosting the freezer
(see cleaning your appliance).
