As lettuces become a delicacy and prices continue to rise more broadly across the grocery aisles and food markets, looking for alternatives to your regular grocery list can help to reduce costs. However how do you know which is the best fruits or vegetables to switch from fresh to either frozen, or in some instances canned?

Of course it would be all great to be living off the land and having everything in our back paddock, however very few of us live this way, and even if we do we might need to look to store the excess produce we have. Frozen fruits and vegetables are typically frozen very close to the source, and as such are able to retain their goodness and most importantly nutrients.

 Overall the most sensitive nutrients to storage, heat and light is vitamin B’s and C. Canning, whilst an ideal form of preserving foods, can reduce the levels of Vitamin C in several vegetables, and only marginally for corn and beetroot, [1]. However although canning foods does initially reduce the levels of vitamin C in the fruit or vegetable initially, the loss through cooking and preparing is then less. Important to note is that some canned processes do increase the amount of sodium in the foodstuff, and as a result consider if there is a salt reduced option or if too high in sodium, switch to a frozen alternative, [2].

A study from 2017 looking at various fruits and vegetables found that there were no significant differences between fresh or frozen broccoli, cauliflower and corn, and that frozen peas had higher levels when frozen as compared to fresh, [3].

So what does this all practically mean? With prices continuing to rise, looking to switch to alternate options such as frozen vegetables, or a can of beetroot for your salad is a smart option. Not only will you be eating more fruits and vegetables, it will be stored for longer which equates to less food wastage and be kinder to your wallet so you can spend that hard earned money elsewhere, i.e. eating out at a nice restaurant!

[1] Rickman, J. C., Barrett, D. M., & Bruhn, C. M. (2007). Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. Part 1. Vitamins C and B and phenolic compounds. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 87(6), 930-944.

[2] Rickman, J. C., Bruhn, C. M., & Barrett, D. M. (2007). Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables II. Vitamin A and carotenoids, vitamin E, minerals and fiber. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 87(7), 1185-1196.

[3] Kapica, C., & Weiss, W. (2012). Canned fruits, vegetables, beans and fish provide nutrients at a lower cost compared to fresh, frozen or dried.