Qualitaly

FEB-MARCH 2015

At page 20

Frozen vegetables,

quality and

practicality subzero.

Always available, with qualitative

constant characteristics, they can

be used without waste according to

the production needs. Those are just

some of the valuable characteristics

of frozen vegetables valuable to a

professional

By Mariella Boni

If the fresh product is indispensable for

a cook, by contrast also that has many

issues: the need for a constant supply,

operations of selection and cleaning,

which lead to an inevitable waste and

loss in weight of the raw material, not to

mention the time needed for perform all

the preliminary preparation.

ASPECTS OF DATE, for those who

choose to opt for a product frost.

Explains Luca Cerati, director of

foodservice Bonduelle: “In addition to

the constant availability and uniformity

of product, a crucial aspect in favor

of frozen vegetable product we think

is the ready solution to every need in

the kitchen. Within the category of

frozen you must still make distinctions

between quality product, with certain

characteristics and features, and

products more price-oriented. In recent

years we have worked a lot of Bonduelle

alongside professionals away from home

know the needs within their processes

cuisine to offer an assortment that

responds to their every need.”

“The cook knows he can not give up

the fresh - highlights Daniel Lambertini,

commercial director of foodservice

Orogel - and for that appreciates more

and more frozen products. Why? The

cook knows that it is first of all fresh

products that maintain unchanged the

salient features of the product and the

freshness within hours of collection

thanks to the only natural preservative

used: the cold. Frozen foods also allow

an important reduction of food waste,

as they are free of waste and with a

retention period of quite large, which

allows an easier use of the product.

Frozen foods are practical, immediately

usable because it already cleaned and

washed: important features from the

point of view of energy saving, the

contraction of time for preparation

and cooking. It should be emphasized

also that the fresh frozen are available

throughout the year: in the case of

plants specifically, the products are

harvested at the right degree of ripeness

and in perfect season, but then be used,

ensuring maximum versatility, in any

time. Not to mention that the selling

price is constant regardless of the

period or the availability of the market,

allowing you to plan and accurately

quantify the costs during the year.”

Even Marta Rondoni, Italian sales

director of Pinguin, emphasizes: “The

frozen food, especially of vegetables,

has several advantageous aspects both

in terms of quality and practical. Frozen

vegetables are transported, washed,

processed and frozen within hours of

harvest and this allows to best preserve

the nutrients of the product and to

ensure a stable product: at any time of

the year you can use the same product

in terms of taste, color, texture and

yield. Collections are made at certain

times of the year, the best ones for

each individual product, which can

then be consumed throughout the year,

especially when fresh produce is not

available.”

ONLY FROZEN, ZERO

PRESERVATIVES. It is good to

emphasize something; you need to

debunk false opinions that sometimes it

has against the frozen food in general.

It is a product without preservatives: it

is only the cold to act on their long shelf

life. To explain briefly the main steps of

the process is just Marta Rondoni: “The

fresh product arrives at our factories and

is first of all verified by a careful quality

control, which ensures all the chemical

and physical characteristics, discarding

the non-conforming product; is then

washed and centrifuged mechanically,

after which it is subjected to various

mechanical and manual controls to

identify and eliminate any foreign bodies

(with metal detector and machines with

scanner able to select for texture and

color). Subsequently, depending on

the product, there may be additional

processing steps (cutting, portioning,

realization of the mix of different

vegetables). Then comes the “blanching”

or a blanched product and finally

freezing.”

“In Bonduelle - specifies in turn Cerati

- for all types of vegetables there is a

different process which shall include the

characteristics of the raw material and

the desire to get a certain product. In

our factories the product is harvested in

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