Tips on Freezing Food
• As with storing fresh foods, suitable packaging,
correct temperature and food hygiene will enhance
the quality of the food you are freezing.
• Avoid putting hot foods into the freezer. First let them
cool until they reach room temperature.
• Make sure that all foods for freezing are of a high
quality, and suitable for freezing.
• Use packaging material that is odourless and airproof
(such as plastic bags) to store food in so different
foods can be mixed without affecting the quality.
Make sure that it is airtight. Leaking packaging will
dehydrate the products and lead to loss of benecial
vitamins.
• Keep the surface of the packaging dry – this keeps
the packs from freezing together.
• Mark packages with the kind of food contained and
the date of storage.
• Food needs to be frozen quickly, so it is best to
freeze small portions whenever possible and ensure
that they are as cold as possible before storage. The
recommended maximum weight for each portion is
2.5 kg.
• Keep food which is fresh away from food which is
already frozen, if you need to freeze fresh food every
day, make sure that it is in small portions to prevent
this.
• Do not exceed the maximum load for freezing –
which is given as 10 kg / 24-hours (see data badge
for details).
• Write the expiry date and food names on the outside
of the packaging so you can be assured of the food
type and when it is safe to eat.
• Take food from the freezer to defrost when needed.
Defrosted food cannot be refrozen unless it is
cooked.
• Do not put too much fresh food into the freezer at
once. This could go beyond the freezer’s cooling
capacity (see ‘Technical Data’).
• When storing commercially frozen foods, please
follow these guidelines:
• Always follow manufacturers’ guidelines for the
length of time you should store food for. Do not
exceed these guidelines!
• Try to keep the length of time between
purchase and storage as short as possible to
preserve food quality.
• Buy frozen foods, which have been stored at a
temperature of –18 °C or below.
• Avoid buying food which has ice or frost on the
packaging – This indicates that the products
might have been partially defrosted and
refrozen at some point – temperature rises
affect the quality of food.
• Should there be a power cut, or the fridge /
freezer fail for any length of time, for more than
5 hours, you may need to remove food from the
freezer and if possible store in another working
freezer or a cold, hygienic place (i.e. garage
or out house area) until the power is restored,
or the appliance is repaired. To prevent undue
temperature rise you should store the food
in a cool box or wrap the food in layers of
insulating material, such as newspaper, to help
to maintain the temperature.
It is important that any food that defrosts should
be either consumed, or cooked and refrozen
(where suitable) soon afterwards in order to
prevent health risks.
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