This post was sponsored by the American Frozen Food Institute, but the opinions are my own.
Frozen Food: Nature’s Pause Button
Fact: Most Americans are not meeting the dietary guidelines for fruits and vegetables. Frozen food can help make meeting the recommended intake possible (and easier).
My latest book encourages consumers to waste less food. Freezing is a food waste solution. It’s also a preferred method of food preservation because it maintains the integrity, nutritional value, and freshness of foods. Frozen foods offer year-round quality and availability. In addition, there’s evidence that frozen food is equal in nutrition to fresh and local food. Think of the freezer as “nature’s pause button”.
Delicious in the field, but grown specifically for the freezer section of your favorite grocery store.
Where do Frozen Raspberries Come From?
I was invited by the American Frozen Food Institute (along with 3 other media dietitians) to attend the Washington Red Raspberry Commission Harvest Tour in Lyndon, Washington.
I absolutely love the opportunity to see where our food comes, with my own eyes, and share the story with you. Not to mention how wonderful it is to see so many beautiful parts of our country and meet the wonderful people who grow our food. There are so many coordinated steps to getting our food to the grocery store. I remain incredibly grateful for the work of the people who grow, care for, harvest, pick, and process our food.
Washington state raspberry fields.
Raspberries – Grown for Frozen
Fun fact: Washington state produces approximately 90% of the nation’s frozen red raspberry crop. This region grows over 60 million pounds of raspberries per year on 9,600 acres!
I visited two farms. Enfield Farms grows, harvests, and freezes, onsite. We had the opportunity to tour the fields and their facilities. We also visited Markwell farms where we got to ride a harvester and see how the berries are picked.
The berries are planted on a raised mound in a way specifically designed for machine harvesting. Berries grown for the frozen food industry need to taste delicious, but also stay intact throughout the picking and freezing process. They’re picked at the peak of ripeness, locking in nutrition and flavor.
Greenhouses where they grow and test new varieties of raspberries that will be delicious but also hold up to freezing.
Berry Structure and Flavor
Growing and nurturing this delicate fruit requires continuous greenhouse research. At some point in your life you may have enjoyed fresh raspberries that, while delicious, break apart into tiny spheres in your hands. That type of berry may not work so well for freezing at scale. Scientists and farmers are continually working on making sure they have the best plants that produce the best berries. A lot of work and testing goes into the plant breeding and greenhouse operation at Enfield Farms. These berries need to taste good and hold up to freezing.
The Harvest
While the entire raspberry operation (growing, nurturing) goes on all year, the summer harvest season lasts only a few, intense weeks. When you are have millions of pounds of berries to pick, you need machinery!
The raspberry plants utilize a wire trellis system to support the canes on which the berries grow. Rows are specifically spaced ten feet apart to accommodate the machinery. The harvesters carefully drive between the rows.
The harvesters carefully drive down each row, and shakes the berries from the plants, sending them to a conveyor belt that dumps them into crates. One machine can pick 20 to 25 acres/day.
The first inspection of the berries is done by hand right from the harvester. A picker sorts out any leaves, stems or unripe berries from the crates.
Farm to Freezer: The Harvest Plant
From the field, the crates from the harvesters are delivered to the processing plant. There, they are quickly chilled, before they move on to the freezing and packaging process. Amazing!
Berries are frozen and packaged in less than 24 hours of being picked. The quick freezing process takes only 13 minutes! The gentle flash-freezing process maintains the fruit’s flavor and nutrient integrity.
At the Processing Plant: Frozen Raspberries are riding the conveyor belt and ready to be packaged.
Friends with Benefits – Frozen Foods.
I often say, “the freezer is your friend” for reducing food waste. I love the low waste nature of frozen foods. However “frozen produce” is sometimes viewed as inferior compared to fresh produce. Not so!
Frozen is just as nutritious, and sometimes even more nutritious, because of its short wait from harvest to freezer. Freezing prevents post-harvest decline of nutrients in produce. (It also protects protein, vitamins A and D, or other nutrients in meat, seafood, and poultry.)
Quick Facts:
- Washington state produces approximately 90% of the nation’s frozen red raspberry crop. Harvesters in in Whatcom County Washington harvest 60 million pounds of raspberries a year.
- Every September, they harvest about 300-400 thousand pounds of raspberries per day. They are quickly transported to on-sight facilities, where the berries are frozen and packaged.
- The highest quality berries are chosen for the freezing process. Freezing preserves macro- and micronutrients and locks in nutrition.
- Frozen raspberries are an all around low-waste product. You’ll be happy to know that 99% of the product gets used. Imperfect berries are used for juice and puree (for preserves or culinary applications).
- Frozen berries have so many culinary applications: Sauces (sweet or spicy), smoothies, in oatmeal or overnight oats, cheesecake and other desserts.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the frozen raspberry industry and it offered some insight about the work and skill it takes to grow our food, and the benefits of frozen foods!
RD pals riding the harvester at Markwell farms
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