Frozen fruits and vegetables=less pesticide

[ElliotB]

Frozen fruits and vegetables generally have less pesticide residue than fresh conventional produce.

And nutrition levels are about the same as fresh, sometimes higher.

Why is this so? How is this possible?

Fresh fruits and vegetables are picked before they are ready to eat and all are basically heavily treated with pesticides after they are harvested to help preserve them during the time it takes to get from the farm to the supermarket (applies obviously mainly to fruits), which can often take 1-2 weeks for most fruits and vegetables and in some cases months (potatoes, apples and tomatoes for example). Without pesticides they would likely become infested with unwanted guests, not look appetizing and would not be sellable. Some of the vitamins and minerals in produce start to degrade soon after harvesting and continue to degrade over time. Also keep in mind that pesticides are also absorbed internally through ground water that reaches the roots.

Fruits and vegetables that are earmarked to be frozen are generally harvested when ripe and flash frozen within hours of harvest without the need for additional pesticides, so they may actually retain more those nutrients when consumed as compared to their 'fresh' counterparts which may not be as fresh as you would think (see link below). Also, since most of the fruit we see at the supermarket is picked well before it is ripe, sometimes it doesn't even ripen properly (rock hard peaches are a good examples - they often never ripen and simply rot).

Few will disagree - pesticides are not good for us. Are they particularly harmful to us over the short term in the low amounts present in the residue on the fruits and vegetables we eat? The answer appears to be generally no. They are certainly not killing us quickly, but whether or not they have long-term negative health effects after ingesting them for many years is unclear but certainly likely - pesticide are a poison designed to kill and they do not discriminate who/what they target. The majority of Americans are sick with something. Could pesticides be a major reason for this? How could they possibly be good for us? They should be avoided as much as possible (impossible to avoid completely), especially for those of us that are already sick with a major illness. For numerous reasons, frozen fruits and vegetables make sense to me over fresh if you are going to consume them.



Just how old are the 'fresh' fruit & vegetables we eat?

You might be surprised at the answer:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... features18