Bringing our Farm2Fork business operations all into line, we’ve started selling our goose frozen, just as we do with all our other produce.
This has prompted a number of enquiries about our decision from customers who for the past 12 years have bought their goose fresh from us.
Here’s why.
There are no negative effects from freezing.
We see a lot of benefits to selling our produce frozen, which includes zero waste, and locking in freshness and flavour, but clever marketing has meant a lot of customers still think “fresh” means better.
Fresh by definition means “recently made or obtained; not tinned, frozen, or otherwise preserved”, but producers have learnt to push this definition of fresh to its boundaries and use clever techniques so they can still market food to convince consumers that fresh is superior.
This just isn’t true.
In order to get a longer shelf life on meat; large-scale retailers and producers will chill meat down to just above freezing, and use atmosphere packaging or cold rooms filled with CO2 to flush away the oxygen, keeping it fresh for longer.
With freezing, the nutrients and freshness of the produce are locked in immediately. According to research conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “the freezing process itself does not destroy nutrients in meat and poultry products, (and) there is little change in nutrient value during freezer storage.”
At Farm2Fork we freeze our meat because it’s the most natural way of preserving food, and because our farm is seasonally focused it enables us to offer our fabulous grass-fed produce year-round. It’s a more sustainable method that produces zero waste, and it retains its freshness and gives us a longer window to get products out to our customers without any loss of quality, flavour or texture.
It also makes life easier in the run-up to Christmas, with our festive birds we can deliver them earlier without them spoiling, and year-round with all our meat it offers flexibility and convenience to our customers at home.
At Farm2Fork, we provide storage and thawing instructions for our customers.
When meat is fast frozen and thawed correctly, following Farm2Fork guidelines, there’s actually no difference in flavour or quality at all. It will retain its nutritional value, its colour and taste, and the bonus is that you can store it for a long time.
Rest assured that there has been a lot of thought and consideration into how we store our meat, and we can promise you that freezing our goose means absolutely no compromising on quality or taste and it offers a more sustainable solution for our customers.
