In one study published in 2015, researchers measured the levels of four vitamins in eight types of frozen and fresh fruits and vegetables: strawberries, spinach, broccoli, corn, carrots, peas, green beans and blueberries. They found that while fresh and frozen versions generally had similar levels of vitamins, there were notable exceptions. Frozen corn, green beans and blueberries, for example, had significantly higher levels of vitamin C than their fresh counterparts. And the vitamin E levels in frozen green beans, peas, blueberries and spinach were higher than in the fresh versions. The vitamin B2 levels were also higher in frozen broccoli versus fresh.
Frozen fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients because they are picked and then quickly frozen when they are ripe — when their vitamin and mineral levels are typically highest, said Marie Barone, a dietitian at UC Davis Health. On the other hand, with fresh options, “the longer produce sits around on store shelves or in our homes, the more nutrients it loses,” she said.
Put another way, the fresh produce you see at the grocery store has often lost some nutrients before you’ve even purchased it, let alone eaten it, said Sander Kersten, a molecular nutrition researcher at Cornell University.
These nutritional differences are often greatest during farming off-seasons, Ms. Barone said. If you buy a fresh peach in February, when it is not locally in season, it will probably have been picked at a faraway farm and then transported many miles — across several days — to your grocery store, losing nutrients along the way. In one study from 2003, researchers calculated that conventionally grown produce travels, on average, nearly 1,500 miles before reaching consumers.
They can be cheaper.
Frozen foods are often cheaper than their fresh counterparts, too. According to the Department of Agriculture, the average prices of fruits and vegetables like blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, broccoli, brussels sprouts, corn, green beans, kale and spinach are lower when purchased frozen instead of fresh.
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