The Ultimate Guide to Your Freezer

One of the easiest food waste hacks is something you already own… your freezer! Didn’t need a whole jar of tomatoes for the recipe? Freeze it. Bought cheese when it was on sale but don’t want it to go bad? Freeze it. 

How to Organize Your Freezer for Maximum Space

In this blog, we’re going to share our best freezer storage tips and tricks! First up, let’s talk about organizing your freezer. To make the most of your freezer space, we suggest freezing liquids like broth, sauces or juice by laying them flat in a plastic or reusable bag and then freezing. This way, they take up less room and can be easily stacked. 

 

What Is Blanching (and Why It Matters for Freezing)

Another great hack for making the most out of your freezer and produce is blanching vegetables before you freeze. Blanching is a cooking technique where you put produce into boiling water for a short period of time and then immediately put it into an ice bath to stop the cooking. 

By blanching produce like green beans, carrots, and broccoli, you stop the enzymes that cause the vegetables to lose their colour, flavour, and texture. So when you go to defrost your vegetables, they still have that same freshness as when you bought them. 

hands closing a ziploc bag with liquid in the bottom
 

Can You Freeze Cheese, Ginger, and Other Common Items?

Now, as someone who cares about preventing food waste, searched 'can I freeze cheese' or 'can you freeze salsa'? The answer is usually yes. This is one of the best parts about using your freezer as a tool to avoid food waste: most items you can freeze. 

Let’s say you buy a hard cheese like cheddar when it’s on sale; you can cut the block into smaller pieces and freeze the rest. Or we’ve all come across recipes that call for a small amount of ginger; once you’ve used what you need, you can peel the ginger and place it in the freezer. 

The moral of the story is that your freezer is your not-so-secret weapon in the fight against food waste and reducing your grocery bill. By using the freezer, you can extend the life of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, and so much more! 

Freezers Save Food — and So Do We

Your freezer is one of the simplest tools you have to fight food waste at home. At Food Stash, we're doing the same thing at a bigger scale — rescuing food from grocery stores and wholesalers before it goes to landfill, and yes, that means a lot of freezer space on our end too.

If you're passionate about reducing food waste, there one important way you can support us 

  • Donate to help us rescue more food from landfill

    • Beef, lamb, pork, and whole poultry can be frozen for up to 1 year past the best before date 

    • Poultry pieces, like chicken thighs, chicken wings, chicken breasts can be frozen 6 months past the best before date

    • Ground meat can be frozen 2 - 3 months past the best before date 

    • Fish can be frozen 2 - 6 months past the best before date 

    Check out this resource from Second Harvest to learn more about Best Before Date timetables

  • Organize by type of food so that you can easily find what you're looking for. Freezing items flat so that you can maximize your space. Labelling and putting the date on items so that you can keep track of when items should be consumed by for maximum freshness.

Interested in seeing how Anna, our Social Media Manager, organized her small freezer? Check it out below