If you Google the term fresh frozen you’ll get more than a few references to one of Gordon Ramsay’s meltdowns on Kitchen Nightmares, where he throws a fit because a cook tells him, “We keep it frozen fresh.” There is no such thing as fresh food that is frozen. Food is either frozen or it is fresh. However, there are many frozen food items that are referred to on the labels as fresh frozen. What could this possibly mean? Are they trying to say it is frozen and still fresh?
Quick Answer: What Does “Fresh Frozen” Mean?
- What Does Fresh Frozen Mean? It means that the food was frozen as quickly as possible while still fresh.
- Fresh Frozen Examples: Examples of fresh frozen are the many types of fish that are immediately frozen on the boat where they are caught, including frozen shrimp.
- Fresh Frozen vs Frozen Fresh: Both terms can be used to mean that a food product was quickly frozen while it was still fresh. The more misleading term, fresh frozen, is more often used
Regulations allow a few different ways of describing this, however. First, it would help to understand how the word fresh on food labels is regulated.
Why the Term Fresh Frozen Is a Problem
While both terms can be used, as stated above, fresh frozen is more likely to be used on food labels. Consumers are likely to assume this implies freshness, rather than how quickly it was brought to the freezer. “Frozen fresh,” on the other hand, will probably be interpreted as frozen while fresh. The term freshly frozen can also be used.
To make matters worse, a fresh food can be blanched before freezing and still be called fresh frozen. This is because the blanching of some foods before freezing is not only common but required, as a quick scald before freezing helps preserve nutrients. While this step is crucial, it makes food labels even more misleading.
Quickly Frozen
Quickly frozen does not mean the same thing as fresh frozen or frozen fresh. This term, instead of describing how fresh the food was when it was frozen, describes the freezing method itself and how fast it is. Particularly, it refers to freezing methods like blast-freezing, which uses sub-zero (in terms of Fahrenheit) temperatures and super-chilled air “blasted” at the food. The quicker a food is frozen, in many cases, the better, in terms of quality and deterioration, so quickly frozen is usually a plus. Most “fresh frozen” seafood is flash frozen.