While South African meat wholesalers N1 supply an extensive range of high-quality Halaal and non-Halaal meat products, their range of wholesale frozen vegetables continues to grow in size and popularity. While the core values that drive N1 are quality, service and delivery; the core values that underpin their range of frozen vegetables are quality, value and convenience – quality, because vegetables are picked at their peak and then flash-frozen locking in all their nutrients; value and convenience because frozen vegetables are available year-round and save both time and money.
Studies have shown that in most cases flash-frozen vegetables are equal in nutrition to fresh vegetables, and in some cases actually superior to their fresh counterparts which have endured considerably more handling, longer storage, chemicals to delay spoiling and greater exposure to the elements on the retail floor. But where and with whom did the notion of flash-freezing begin? The answer to the where is ice-fishing and the answer to the who is Clarence Birdseye.
Clarence Birdseye II – a college drop-out turned taxidermist – spent the years 1912 to 1915 in Newfoundland where the Inuit taught him how to ice-fish. Due to extreme -40 °C weather, he noticed that the caught fish froze almost instantly, and more importantly tasted fresh upon thawing. Comparing it to the frozen seafood he was used to eating in New York, he realised that the fast-frozen fish tasted far superior and so began his quest to improve the freezing process. Conventional freezing in the early 1900s was done at higher temperatures and because it took the food longer to freeze, the process created large ice crystals which when defrosted turned the food mushy. Flash-freezing however produced smaller ice crystals causing less damage to the food. One experiment led to another and in 1925 Birdseye patented his invention of ‘the double belt freezer, in which cold brine chilled a pair of stainless steel belts carrying packaged fish, freezing the fish quickly’. In 1927 he extended the freezing process to meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables – and so the retail frozen food industry was born.
Today’s wholesale frozen vegetables are flash-frozen in large freezers so cold that freezing takes only a few hours. Once frozen solid the products are moved to conventional freezers that keep the items close to freezing point at all times. Leading South African meat wholesalers N1 offer a wide variety of high-quality frozen products from broccoli and cauliflower to Hawaiian stir fry, Julienne carrots, chopped spinach and roast vegetables. For more on tailor-made orders call the N1 team today.
