Don't Store Frozen Vegetables In The Bag They Came In, Do This Instead

Stocking up on frozen vegetables is a convenient way to sneak more fiber and minerals into your diet. They are picked at the peak of ripeness and last a lot longer than fresh veggies if they are stored properly. In most instances, you can take out only as much as you need and leave the rest in your freezer. The problem, however, is that the packaging for frozen vegetables was never really designed for long-term storage. If you have ever opened a bag of frozen peas only to find them stuck together and freezer burnt, you are not the only one. That is no reason to give up on frozen vegetables, however, according to home cooking guru Dan Pelosi. The culinary expert and author of the new cookbook "Let's Party: Recipes and Menus for Celebrating Every Day" has a simple hack for keeping frozen produce fresh: Replace the bag.

"I always put them in a sealable freezer bag," Pelosi said. "They are really the only thing that prevents freezer burn. The bags that frozen vegetables come in just don't get the job done over time." Freezer burn does not mean your food is actually getting burned. Instead, it is what happens when the moisture in your food escapes through a process called sublimation where the frozen water turns directly into a gas (in this case, water vapor) in the freezer. This dries out the surface of the food, leaving behind the telltale discoloration and a dry, crusty-looking texture.

The only way to prevent freezer burn is to seal the food away from air exposure, which most of those thin bags on frozen vegetables from the store cannot do. Dan Pelosi's hack gives you a lot more control over how much air can get inside the bag because instead of wrapping the open edge with a rubber band or a chip clip, you know that the zipper bag is truly sealed. You can also squeeze out as much air as possible before you seal the bag. The bags used for grocery store packaging are also made of much thinner plastic that is more permeable than thicker zipper-style freezer bags. That means that over time they can allow air and water vapor to pass through, which is why you will often find freezer burn in unopened packages of vegetables that have been sitting in the freezer for a while.

Keep in mind, however, that if you get rid of the original bag you will also lose all the information about the package, and with so many frozen food recalls in the past few years, it's important to hold on to the batch number. "I put the bag they come in [inside] a sealable freezer bag, so I still have the label, expiration date, etc.,"Pelosi said. "This makes the most sense to me, plus bags help with storage as they are super malleable and can be squeezed into tight spaces in the freezer."