made from them consequently have a more compact texture and less uit pies S to be freezing. The same is also volume. the quali mea also be grease-proof. Types of Packaging Materials The packaging m: rigid containers. The fol packaging material and thei Table 3-6. TYPES OF PACKAGING MATERIALS AND ‘THEIR CHARACTERISTICS Packaging Material L, Sheets, Most efficient moisture-vapor proof sheet material; Aluminum foil, freezer weight Cellophane, Teor, PACKAGING MATERIALS, FREEZING PRESERVATION frozen baked or unbaked although when they are not baked before cookies and pastry shells. vultry, the packaging material must may take the form of sheets, bags or ing table shows the different kinds of aracteristics. Characteristics by salt if present in food; can be used for reheating of foods; can be reused a second time only if clean and ‘puncture free. Use freezer tape to seal. MVP; can be heat-sealed; requires an overwrap as it becomes brittle either at room temperature or at 3 PACKAGING MATERIALS = \, 6 Polyethylene Pliofilm Saran film Wax coated papers Bags and Boxed Bags ID Rigid Containers ‘containers Cans (as for canning) Coffee, dried milk, ‘nut cans Glass jars (for freezing) | Paperboard cartons freezing temperature: cannot be purchased for longer than immediate use. MVP pliable plastic film; a poor axygen barrier; for ‘use with meat and fatty foods, limit to 4 months MVP pliable rubber composition film; sealed ke polyethylene film; transparent and lightweight. MVP; it clings closely to product to make a sug ‘wrap; like polyethylene and pliofiim as to method of sealing; transparent and lightweight. May be composed of aluminum foil, polyethylene or pliofiim laminated on kraft paper; cannot be used two times; opaque. Poor MVP even when a double layer is used; should not be used more than 60 days. Made from many of the sheet materials; may be provided with boxes which open either at top or end; before filling, the bags are placed in the box; seal as, the sheet material composing the bag. Good MVP if lids are tightly fitted in place; may be ‘used directly from freezer to reheat foods; may be reused. Good MVP if sealed hermetically; use plain or enamelled cans depending on type of food; sealed with can sealer; may not be reused unless reflanged. May be used when thoroughly cleaned and *deodorized completely; seal with freezer tape at the rim; better used with dry foods to prevent rusting. Widemouthed to allow removal of food without thawing; canning jars may be used but food must be thawed before removing; availabe in pints and q.arts. Variable MVP depending on thickness of waxing: exemplified by paper drinking cups, ice cram andFREEZING PRESERVATION st moat; cannot be reused: cannot be filled N i is ‘when lid is tightly dosed; ee particulaly good for precooked frozen to £87 3 i i i i wrapping foods with irregular shapes like poultry. The simplest form of packing material for fruits and vegetables are heavily waxed cardboard boxes with heat-sealing cellophane liners. Meats are usually wrapped in paper according to cut. For best moisture-vapo material such as cellophane and a protective overwrap. p METHODS OF WRAPPING 6 Stockinette is often employed for protection. Other overwrapping, materials like heavy-duty paper may be used to protect the leas important to eliminate air as much as possible from the package before closing and to provide a seal which will prevent the escape of water vapor from within. It must be remembered that water expands during freezing. In packing watery foods, the container must not be filled over ninety per cent of its capacity. Otherwise the container may freeze over or if the container is semi-rigid, it may give way. In all cases, frozen food must be labelled with the date of packaging and the type of food. It will be found useful to indicate further the amount of food per package. The label may be attached with freezer tape, or placed between the first sheet and the overwrapping stockinette. For some i sealing many rigid containers. There is yet no substitute for freezer tape (unless count twine or string which does not do as well) to seal frozen packages. This kind of tape stays glued even at Methods of Wrapping Wrapping of food for freezing must always be done to exclude air from the package as it is sealed and during storage as well. Loss of moisture by passage of moisture from the food to the atmosphere of the freezer must also be prevented, There are two methods of wrapping food which are able to protect them from these hazards of freezing. : The drug store or freezer wrap (illustrated in sequence) is preferred by many for wrapping food with regular shapes. ‘The food is r of the wrapper with the length of the foodFREEZING PRESERVATION (@) Bring opposite edges of the wropper Place meat in center of wrapper with the Together and fold to make a tight crensa, length of the product the long way of the wrapper. fe fA ‘ (c) Make another fold and bring thewrepper Turn product over, fold the ends and tightly down the product. pull over top of package, then seal with freezer tape, Fig 3.14. How to make © drugstore wrap. METHODS OF WRAPPING (a) Place mest near one comer of the wrapper. Pull corner over the product ‘and turn meat over completely, twice, “@ The remainder is rolled up and the package Is seoled with freezer tape. Roll the package a little further on and then fold the other side tightly against tha food. Fig. 3.15. How to make » butcher wrap.FREEZING PRESERVATION product and air is then forced out from the crevices. The product is f then tumed over. The two end comers are folded toward each other, fi Two tight folds similar to the ones made on top of the package are ft pressed against the food and securely taped at both ends. wien 1, 200 Properly, this method of wrapping isthe better method. ith experience, one can estimate just how much wrapping materi is needed for a certain size of food. The amount of ‘wrapping consumed is less than in the butcher method, discussed subsequently. f° Despite the stated superiority of the drug store wrap, the butcher wrap is employed for irregularly shaped foods like poultry. f° These are difficult to wrap by the drug store method. The food is placed diagonally near one corner of the wrapper. This corner is pulled over the food which is then rolied toward the opposite corner. When more than half of the wrapper has been reached, the right side of the wrapper is folded against the food. The package is further on and then the left side of the wrapper is against the food. The remainder is rolled up and the led with freezer tape. tolled folded package STORAGE LIFE OF HOME FROZEN FOODS The length of time frozen foods can be kept in freezer storage p>: varies with each kind of food and storage temperature. Some can keep for as long as one year while others must be consumed within 2 period of one month. Generally speaking, it has been found that the fi Table 3-7, STORAGE LIFE OF HOME FROZEN FOODS AT ZERO DEGREE FAHRENHEIT Food Item Maximum Storage Period (Months) Fruits 9-12" “Only for sugar or syrup packed fruits with ascorbic acid added. Dry packs do not store as long. 4 STORAGE LIFE OF FROZEN FOODS ‘Sausage and cured meats Cooked meat, without gravy Fatty fish, clams, oysters, shrimps Cooked crab and lobster meat Cooked shrimp 1-2 Dain Prosi salted, unsalted buter and ‘cheese except cottage cheese Heavy cream and ccttage cheese Ice cream Precooked Foods: Leftovers not frozen within 1 hour, fried foods; rice, spaghetti and ; macaroni dishes Roast pork and turkey, stews, cooked vegetables, foods in sauces and gravies, casserole dishes, chop suey, meat and chicken pies, meat balls and loaves, gravies and sauces ‘Stuffing and chili con carne Baked Goods: Cake batters, yeast dough unkneaded, baked baking powder biscuits, muffins, waffles, cream puffs and eclairs, angel : food, sponge cakes, pies Frosted cakes; fruit and nut loaves, fried doughnuts, pie and cookie dough Baked and partially baked yeast rolls; 24 1-2 46FREEZING PRESERVATION baked yeast bread, fruit cakes, unfrosted cakes and cookies; unbaked fruit pies 6-8 Sandwiches 46 ‘Soups 24 THAWING OF FROZEN PRODUCTS Fruits. Many frozen fruits are served without cooking. Th. should not be removed from the container until time for serving During thawing, the container should be turned over to keep the the full flavor of the fruit will be or pie fillings must be ‘ed to the point where the pieces may be separated. Slow thawing inside the refrigerator is preferable to rapid thawing at room temperature. ___ Vegetables. Frozen vegetables are best cooked if dropped directly into rapidly boiling water while still in the frozen state. This results in better retention of color, flavor and food value. Some attempt must be made to separate the pieces during the first minutes of cooking or when practicable, even before dropping in hot water. Otherwise, the pieces on the outside of the frozen block of vegetables will be done before the inner pieces are cooked. This cannot be easily done without injury to certain vegetables like asparagus, cauliflower and thin green leaves. For these vegetables, thawing at room temperature for one hour should be given. They will then be easily thawed when dropped in boiling water. The only exception is frozen corn-on-the-cob which must be completely thawed THAWING OF FROZEN PRODUCTS n before cooking. See to it that frozen vegetables are not overcooked. The blanching treatment given to vegetables prior to freezing partially cooks the products. The time to cook frozen vegetables is just about half the time to cook the fresh ones. If frozen vegetables arepacked in “boil-in-bags”, the cooking is much simpler. The bag is immeresed in boiling water so that there is no direct contact of the vegetables with the water. After the prescribed time, the vegetables are then poured out for serving into a dish, Flavor and materials are not leached out. Meat, Fish and Poultry. They may or may not be thawed before cooking. However, some food preparation necessitates that they be thawed first. Thawing is necessary for meat and fish if they are to be stuffed, ground or shaped before cooking. Meat and fish which are to be fried must also be thewed. Flour, batter or beaten eggs cannot coat frozen meat or fish; hence, they must be thawed if they are to be dredged in flour or rolled in batter or eggs. If pieces of steaks, chops and fish fillets were frozen without the prescribed separation of two thicknesses of wrapping material between pieces, they cannot be separated without thawing, Thawing may be done inside the refrigerator, at room temperature, in front of an electric fan, or immersed in running water — if speed is necessary. Slow thawing inside the refrigerator is the best method. It results in better reabsorption of moisture into the cells. In addition, the meat remains cold so that spoilage bacteria grow slowly on the wet, thawed surface. Thawing may be started in the refrigerator and to speed it up, it may be continued by running cold water continuously over the water-tight package of food. During thawing, leave the food in the unopened cont is important to cook as soon as thawed , while the food is st igerator cold. Beyond this, the food will drip or lose juice excessively. For poultry, thawing is preferred since it is often necessary to do some spot cleaning of the bird. Should it be necessary to cook Poultry without complete thawing, allow extra time for cooking. Roughly, it is estimated that for roasting birds from the frozen state, another 1/2 of the cooking time must be added. This shows that it is more practical and economical in the case of poultry to thaw before cooking.2 FREEZING PRESERVATION | Given below are the approximate time of thawing meat, fish, and poultry under the given conditions. Table 3-8 APPROXIMATE TIME TO THAW MEAT, FISH AND POULTRY Thawing Procedure Time of Thawing Per Kilogram (in Hours) Meat Fish Poultry In refrigerator 6-10 3-5 7-14 At room temperature 4-6 1%-2 3-4 With electric fan 2-3 w-1 1% -2 REFERENCES F.F. Butchering, Processing and Preservation of Meat. New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. 1955. Bauernfeind, J.C. The use of ascorbic acid in processing foods. Advances in Food Research 4:359 (1953). Brown, M.S. Effects of freezing on fruit and vegetable structure, Food Technology 30:110 (1976). Campbell Food Preservation Research Assn. A Manual of Methods for the