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See also: Freezer Burn; Article on Frozen Food
FROZEN FOOD
Spinach was the first frozen vegetable to be sold.
During World War II when Japan had conquered of Southeast Asia, America's main source of tin was cut off. Most canned foods were needed for military use, so the frozen food industry expanded rapidly to fill the void left by the limited supply of canned goods. Until then, most frozen foods were luxury foods.
Most vegetables and fruit that is to be frozen, is picked, packaged and frozen within 6 hours of so of being harvested. Many frozen vegetables have more of certain vitamins than the fresh ones that may have been harvested 5 or more days before you cook them.
Top 10 per capita consumption of Frozen Food: (2000)
Norway - 78 lbs
Denmark - 72 lbs
UK - 68 lbs
Israel - 63 lbs
Czech Republic - 47 lbs
Sweden - 45 lbs
Ireland - 42 lbs
Belgium - 39 lbs
Finland - 37 lbs
U.S. - 36 lbs.
Fresh or Frozen?
According to USDA regulations, the term fresh on a poultry label refers to any raw poultry product that has never been below 26 °F.
Raw poultry held at 0 °F or below must be labeled frozen or previously frozen.
No specific labeling is required on raw poultry stored at temperatures between 0-25 °F. - it does not have to be labeled as frozen.
Think about that - if vegetables, beef, pies, or any other product is kept at 0-25 °F. it is frozen. But not chicken. It may be hard as a rock, but it does not have to be labeled frozen unless it is held below 0 °F.!
Using this standard, the ice cubes in the average home refrigerator would not be called frozen!
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