Although people say you can technically freeze just about anything, some things can be virtually unrecognizable once they’ve been frozen and thawed. Some foods just don’t hold up after being frozen. There is a widespread misconception that most food can be frozen. This is not true.
Not all of your supermarket purchases can be frozen. So, although we congratulate you on your decision to reduce food waste, proceed with care. Some foods look and taste very different when they come out of the freezer than when they go in, which may be unappealing and even harmful.
Here are 10 things you should never keep in the freezer.
Salad Greens
If you want crisp, flavorful greens, then don’t put them in the freezer. Greens will wilt and become soft and limp after they’re frozen, and will definitely lose their flavor. The water in plant cells crystallizes when they are frozen, causing harm to the cell walls. The higher the water concentration, the more damage is done during the freezing process. This is why lettuce and other green leafy vegetables are not recommended for freezing.
Milk
When you freeze milk it will be lumpy when you thaw it, so freezing it is not the best idea if you want to drink it straight. If you’re planning to use the milk in cooking, however, thawed milk can work. When it comes to freezing milk, the main hazard is that it swells. As a result, you should never put it in a glass container to freeze since it will break. Giving the carton more room in the freezer allows for this expansion while also preventing it from being blocked.
When freezing milk it may go through various textural changes that make it unappealing to drink. These characteristics include slushiness, graininess, and fat separation.
Fried Food
Fried foods are crispy, crunchy and greasy and all of that will disappear if you put it in the freezer. It will lose its taste as well as become soft, moist and mushy. It’s not fun to eat fries or fried chicken if it’s not crunchy so keep your fried foods away from the freezer.
Apparently, when you freeze fried food, there are the two things that suffer the greatest damage, the crispy texture and the flavor. Here’s the thing with the taste: the oil that gives fried chicken and other foods its delectable flavor won’t freeze when it’s absorbed. That means the coating on your leftover fried food won’t keep well in the freezer and may deteriorate or become contaminated with bacteria.