Is It Safe To Eat 2-Year-Old Frozen Vegetables?
There are many reasons that people love buying frozen fruits and veggies. For one, it means you can always have your favorite produce close at hand; furthermore, frozen food is often more economical than buying fresh. Buying frozen also means little (or no) prep time when you're cooking. And there's plenty of research that says frozen veggies are actually just as healthy as fresh. According to Healthline, frozen produce is often put in the freezer immediately after harvesting, so it immediately slows decomposition. Freezing might slightly increase or decrease the nutritional content of some veggies, but on the whole, frozen vegetables are usually about as nutritious as fresh.
The Kitchn even did a roundup of the best veggies to keep in the freezer, which includes edamame, butternut squash, broccoli, and greens like spinach and kale.
It almost makes you wonder why you should even bother with fresh veggies at all – especially for making complicated dishes with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. In fact, many recipes specifically call for frozen food. But if you're going the frozen veg route, it's important to know when you're still within the recommended window for consumption.
Eat most frozen fruits and veggies within a year
Runner's World concurs that fruits and vegetables are about as nutritious as fresh, explaining that freezing means that vitamin and mineral loss slows down greatly. The article says that "fruits and vegetables can be frozen for eight to 12 months before they deteriorate in quality." According to the author, frozen food can technically be eaten indefinitely, though it will decrease in quality as time goes on. So it pays to remember when you bought certain frozen fruits and veggies; perhaps marking them with dates can be a good idea.
According to WebMD, freezer burn occurs when you leave food in your freezer so long that it loses moisture and starts to look bad. Fruits and veggies have a higher water content than meat, so they should be good for longer, but you'll want to make sure your produce doesn't turn to the dark side. If it has been less than a year and your frozen food looks normal, you should be good to go. With that being said, it's safe to assume that any frozen vegetables in your fridge past 12 months should probably be thrown out.