As we often go to the market and eagerly buy kilos of food, including meat products, but do not consume it fresh, this is if the temperature of the freezer is higher than the temperature of refrigeration equipment, which is specialized and The built-in food storage industry is very different and in a sense much more convenient.
At the same time, nutritionists always emphasize that as much as possible, fresh foods should be used to replace frozen foods, because a significant percentage of the amount of protein in meat products, especially aquatic products, is lost by freezing them in home refrigerators. River.
In this regard, the Director General of the Office of Quality Improvement, Processing and Development of the Aquatic Market of the Fisheries Organization of Iran believes: The quality of water that we just buy and freeze in home refrigerators is much lower than frozen fish that we buy from the market.
Issa Golshahi stated: If fish is fresh, it has more scientific properties than frozen fish, but this difference is not so much that we leave frozen fish aside.
He added: “For example, to freeze fresh fish in processing units, the product enters a refrigeration tunnel called freezing after washing, preparation and cleaning operations, the temperature of which is minus 40 degrees Celsius.”
The Director General of the Fisheries Organization’s Aquatic Market Quality Improvement, Processing and Development Office continued: In one method, the fish is frozen for 6 to 8 hours and in another fast method for 20 to 30 minutes in a freezing tunnel at a temperature of minus 40 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the property of fish is fully and properly preserved.
He added: “After the fish is taken out of the freezing tunnel, it will be kept in a place called cold storage at minus 18 degrees Celsius before it is offered to the consumer market, because this freezing operation in stores cannot be done in this way.”
Golshahi advised fish consumers to buy as much fresh fish as they need and, more importantly, to trust the frozen fish in the market, because the properties of these products have been preserved with proper storage methods and the necessary standards, including the health code of the Veterinary Organization. Have.
But a senior nutritionist also points out that freezing is actually a way to preserve a food better and longer, noting that fresh meat, poultry and fish always carry some bacteria with them and should be Washing and cleaning should be kept in a cool place, he said: the growth of bacteria in meat stops after storage in the refrigerator, and the continuation of cooking meat also destroys these bacteria in general.
Allameh Haririfar stated: If we want to store fresh fish in home freezers that have a lower temperature than industrial refrigeration equipment after purchase, its quality will definitely decrease.
He added: “The temperature of home freezers that we consider for freezing food, especially protein, is usually between minus 5 to minus 18 degrees Celsius, but in industrial refrigerators, this temperature is between minus 35 to minus 40 degrees Celsius.”
“It takes one to two days to store low-fat fish in the refrigerator and four to six months in the freezer, while the time to store high-fat fish such as salmon in the refrigerator is one to two,” he said. Two days and two to three months in the freezer.
“Of course, if we have the necessary care in packaging and freezing, we can largely preserve the properties of fish,” he said.
He said: the fish should be washed and emptied of its contents with thin and small slices so that the cold temperature of the freezer reaches the middle points of the meat.
Hariri Farahm also emphasized that the back of the freezer and the refrigerator is considered to be the coldest and coldest part of the refrigerator. They grow less where the temperature is lower and the atmosphere is cooler.
He also advised fish consumers not to put frozen fish pieces in water to thaw them, as absorbing water would change the taste of the fish, which is not necessary for whole, uncut fish.
