How to Make the Most of Your Freezer

Freezers are great to prevent food waste. Here are a few tips to make the most of your freezer.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many ingredients are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).

Bread (a main source of food waste) is easily frozen. Buy sliced, then pop slices straight into the toaster.
To freeze green veggies, blanch in boiling water then plunge in iced water, drain, freeze on a tray and transfer to a silicone freezer bag. Boil (don’t steam) from frozen. Don’t freeze high-water foods (lettuce, cucumber, radish).
Always label what goes into the freezer, and add the date. Avoid overfilling your freezer, since cold air must move around for even freezing.
You can freeze homemade pastry for a few months. It will thaw in around an hour, if you’re in a pie-making mood!
Use a fridge/freezer thermometer to check temperatures weekly (Food Standards Agency says fridges should be 0 to 5 degrees and freezers below 18 degrees C (wait for food to cool, before adding).
If defrosting a freezer, don’t leave food out more than a couple of hours ((keep doors closed during power cuts, and food should be okay for a few hours). If the temperature goes above 4 degrees C, throw food away.

For fridges, transfer opened canned foods to containers, and store animal foods on the bottom shelf, to avoid dripping onto surfaces below.

Choosing and Maintaining Freezers

To clean a freezer, unplug and move food to a cool box. Remove shelves and baskets to wash and rinse in the sink, and dry everything before switching the freezer on again.

Look for A-rating freezers, ideally with a Quiet Mark (freezers that make a noise could be faulty, Curry’s offers a ‘no-fix, no fee’ service). Cleaning the condenser coils with a vacuum cleaner soft hose every few months can prevent noise, as can adjusting the feet and tightening screws.

If you are on a low income, you can buy (PAT-tested) fridge/freezers from Reuse Network. Some places (including councils) give grants for those in need: