Frozen Vegetable Thread Part 2

Why are frozen green beans always so terrible? Can't you hire some food scientist to fix it? They always have that "squeaky" sort of texture and it's awful.

do the frozen veg people have a monopoly on buying peas and that's why you never see fresh ones for sale?

aaand we are in business.
well, it depends if they are organic or not.

with organic, pesticides and shit are strictly not allowed. so basically they grow in the field, get harvested, and not even 2 hours later, dumped into a bunch of machines that get out the rocks/dirt/insects/stems/leafs/etc.

then they are blanched, and flash frozen.

run through a metal detector, dumped into a big box, stuck in a huge freezer.

later they get taken out of the freezer, inspected in a room barely above freezing, on a table that shakes all the peas through, people pick out any bad peas, thistles, nightshade, etc any foreign objects, then run through another metal detector and put back in the freezer.

yet later, they get taken back out of the freezer, loaded up into the packaging machine, bagged, put in boxes, boxes put on a pallet on a forklift, back into the freezer again until they get shipped away to stores

meh, frozen green beans aren't as good as fresh,but are better than canned

I'm not shilling for the frozen food industry here, yes fresh is ideal, but frozen is more convenient and lasts longer

I'm not sure but probably

personally Ive never seen fresh unfrozen peas at grocery stores around here. easier to freeze em I guess.

what's considered the 'filler' in those veggie mixes? always been kind of curious. What's the most expensive frozen vegetable?

Do you know anything about fruits? why is frozen mango so damn expensive

forgot to mention they get metal detected again during packaging

3 times they get run through a metal detector

i've seen them but they're low value
the taste is basically indistinguishable from frozen (unlike carrots, broccoli, or green beans) and they're fucking expensive

inb4 corn

in mixed veg, assuming the mix is peas, carrots, corn, green beans; corn and peas are probably considered the "filler".

as far as fruit, fruit is expensive, and often imported as some fruits are hard to grow in the US economically. we don't do frozen mango so idk about that, but I do know we get strawberries from Brazil and blackberries and raspberries from Serbia

but most things we do are American grown

do you think three times is a bit excessive ? or is this part of the clue

Thanks - great complete answer...

except...

do you then have any specific knowledge that if it doesn't say specifically "organic" on the package, that it is f***rd in any way? There are a variety of brands for sale where I live, many from the States and some from Europe.

Do you know at all if it doesn't say organic if it is likely "treated" in a way I, as a natural foodie would find questionable?

Also - the convenience of your product makes it inefficient to buy the local produce even here in a traditional farming community. The stuff I buy here from the fruit and veg stands is dirty, inconsistent in shape and size, sometimes contains "surprises" inside, but is for sure organic and natural. It is a pain in the ass to filter through crates of veggies to find the ones that look palatable.

Being checked every time it's processed makes sense. Nothing will wreck a company like having to do a recall over someone finding a hunk of machinery or razor blade or BB or something in their bag of frozen corn.

better safe than sorry.

metal could be in the fields rusted off of a tractor or combine, a nail could come off the pallet the box of veg is on, a screw could come loose on one of the processing or packaging machines.

I'm sure you would not enjoy biting into metal.

i worked at ferrero and they x ray and metal detect every jar of nutella several times

It's funny you are discussing green peas. Where I live is 3rd world for sure, but here I could buy fresh unfrozen green peas every day for very little money comparatively. In many stores that sell fruit and veg you can see people spending their morning removing peas from the pods by hand with paring knives.

well, I'm not sure what country you're from, but in the US, if the package doesn't say USDA CERTIFIED ORGANIC, that means they used pesticides, genetic modification, and all kinds of fuckery.

organic, you can't do any of that shit. which is why we have to inspect the veg and pick thistles out of the peas, and nightshade out of the soybeans. we can't use pesticides, so weeds will grow.

there are some things we package that aren't organic, but it won't say USDA ORGANIC on the package if it isn't legit organic.

we even have different sanitizing chemicals for the equipment depending on whether its organic or not.

what's the most time/labor intensive vegetable to process for freezing?

i'm gonna guess sugar snap peas or something

Stop censoring your posts.

You're not h*ckin in charge of anyone else

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

>censors his own swear words
>natural foodie
>tries to get useful information from Veeky Forums
What the hell are people like this doing on Veeky Forums? How do they even know about this website?

well spinach fucking sucks.
we don't grow it, but we package it. and it sucks major ass. the little particles of spinach dust get everywhere and when you're cleaning the machines it's almost impossible to get every little bit. don't get me wrong, we do our best, but weeks after running spinach I'll find spinach dust on the floor somewhere.

maybe I should have added that in OP as another disclaimer...

>if you buy frozen spinach FUCK YOU AND GO TO HELL

as far as what we grow and process instead of just buying and packaging, green beans and edamame (soybeans in the shell) can be a pain in the ass.

no problemo

Do you really have to clean it so well? It's not like spinach is a common allergen.

huh, I'd have thought spinach was one of the easier ones, since it's all just smoshed into a dark brick, you don't have to do as much visual quality control on it, I assume? shame about that dust though sounds awful

thanks for answering all these questions. I never thought about frozen food much but I appreciate how easy it is and I read that it can cut down on food waste since spoilage isn't an issue, so I try to buy more and use fresh vegetables more conscientiously

we clean the fuck out of our machines. honestly I think the machines at work are cleaner than my own goddamn dishes at home haha

and yeah spinach isn't a common allergen, but we run soybeans too. soy is a MAJOR allergen. so whatever we run we just make it a habit to clean the fuck out of everything. we have tests where we swab the equipment and it gets put into a machine to test for residue and allergens, and if the test fails we re clean it and test again. if it fails again, we clean again, etc.

I'm sort of curious now, what's the cleaning process like?

Is it really worth all that time and effort? Why not list soy on the packaging as a potential allergen and accept that it'll lose you 0.01% of your sales.

the spinach we package was already inspected by some other place cuz we don't grow it or process it ourselves.

sometimes the spinach makes the metal detectors false alarm. lots of iron in spinach I suppose

that's some real sensitive metal detector

basically its
>rinse all the veg off
>apply soap (we got a hose that sprays soap foam)
>scrub the hell out of the stainless steel with brushes
>rinse the soap off
>test the equipment with the swab
>if it fails, rerinse and resoap and rescrub
>when it passes, apply sanitizer
>squeegee all the water off the floor into the drains and clean up the forklift wheel marks with the floor cleaner vehicle (we call it the zamboni, like the ice skating rink surfacing vehicle)
>clean and sanitize the drains too

we have to adjust the sensitivity for different vegetables/fruits

the metal detectors are also conveyor belts that automatically push out any possibly metal contaminated product off the belt

I liked spinach until I read this thread. I'm now a broccoli person.

there are laws and regulations set by the FDA and USDA that food processors and manufacturers must follow. it's not optional. we get audited by the government often. for food safety of course.

but also worker safety. we have to wear earplugs every day and have an annual hearing test. the machines aren't super loud, but still can wreck your hearing being exposed to the noise unprotected every day for 8+ hours. also we wear hardhats. and lab coats in the packaging room.

also steel toe boots are strongly recommended. company reimburses you for them up to a certain price

How do you pronounce veg and do you use the term in everyday verbal communication?

Why?

veg

vedjh

ain't nobody got time to say vegetable

together we can end the spinach meme

Dear OP,

Peas and corn are my favorite frozen veggies. (separate, not mixed together). So useful in daily cooking, as well as generally fairly healthy nutritional value still stored.
>OK tier
Carrot, broccoli, cauliflower medley
>fuck you tier
Lima/wax beans
>straight cauliflower

also I would just like to say that vegans are retards, and this is coming from a guy that makes veggies for a living.

you have no idea how many insects, mice, frogs, snakes, various small animals are killed by vegetable production. it's a small animal genocide. caught in the combine harvester, caught in the processing equipment, etc.

none of that gets in your food of course. but animals died to bring you those veggies.

things die so you can eat.
deal with it or starve.

I just want to say I keep a 5lbs bag of mixed veggies like your OP image in my refridegrator at all times and have it as a side dish multiple times a week.

Cheap, tasty, nutritious, and easy to prepare.
So thanks for keeping me alive.

Now for questions:
1. I assume you get excess or discounted stock to take home?
2. How do you like to prepare your frozen veggies? Roast? Steam? Mixed with rice or combined in soup? What seasonings?
3. You explained in how your organic stock are processed. Is it any different for conventional frozen produce?

how do you meet the #grams Protein you have claimed on your nutrition facts? Do you grind up beetles and other insects into a fine dust/puree and then mix it in with the food?

I heard thats how ConAgra does it now days for their Bertolli's

Why does the diced carrots always taste like shit and are discolored almost clear most of the time?

How much food coloring is added in so when you blanch/flashfreeze, it still looks natural when it hits the dining table?

>lots of iron in spinach I suppose
or those bigass industrial-sized copper cardboard box staples getting through. Had one of them in the past 5 years.

>basically its
whatever day of the week it is, and whatever the cash-paid illegal immigrants want to do?

Tiny little jihad leaves filled with metallic particles designed to lacerate the intestines of well-intentioned middle Americans.

The consistency of these terrorist veggies seem designed to confound even the best efforts of our vegetable pre-packaging warriors. This in and of itself is reason enough to recognize spinach as hostile.

F**k spinach. Come at me Popeye.

my favs are peas carrots and potatoes

I feel dumb eating corn by itself because corn is already in like every processed food product but it's ok I guess

They know, they just brush it aside/cognitive dissonance it up with specious "harm reduction" arguments that aren't borne out in research.

quality shitposting

so hostile.

all whiteys working here. no illegals

>I feel dumb eating corn by itself
I'm a weird one, I put steamed corn into my baked potato.
Light salt, cracked pepper, and some butter, and I'm a happy man.
Also dump it into sloppy joes too.

The bulk of my corn usage goes into making soups and stews. FUCK I could go for a nice bowl of corn chowder right now.

Hey, that corn/pea/carrot mix you got there? Keep doing that. I like that. The canned version sucks.

1. my freezer is stuffer full of free peas carrots potatoes and green beans
2. I usually boil the peas carrots and green beans and mix with rice, or fry up the potatoes and sprinkle shredded cheddar on top
3. not much different, but we have to be very careful to not mix "conventional" product in with organic. sometimes you might get a little bit of organic mixed in with your conventional though. but organic has to be very strictly 100% organic.

also different sanitizers are used to clean the machines depending on if the run was conventional or organic. not quite sure why on that, but I'm sure its for a good reason.

>quality shitposting
someone telling you truthful experiences are not a shitpost fucker. I may be assuming about the grinding up the beetles part, but we did have a bag of bertolli's that still had multiple whole beetle carcasses in it, and prior to that, I found myself questioning a few bites every now and again every couple weeks. (it was a every-monday night dinner sort of thing).

If I've learned anything by purchasing a majority of my meals from frozen food, its that big group corps like conagra will cut corners and costs down at every possible venue that they can. I literally try to avoid that company all together just because their food just doesn't seem to be sanitary altogether.

heh sloppy joes.

when we're processing carrots, we have to shovel up all this carrot shavings off the floor, and I always joke we should market it as "vegan sloppy joes" because it looks like sloppy joe meat

try this. get a fryinpan on high, or line a baking pan with aluminum foil, then slather with butter. Next keep that bitch on superhot, and blanket in shredded mozzarella cheese and then frozen corn on top. cook until the cheese burns to the aluminum foil, and the corn is no longer frozen. Its literally fuckin amazing with beer.

>red potatoes, not golden idaho
>nothing was seared prior to dumping into mix
ick.

>leafs

indeed.
canned sucks ass. all the veg is flosting in that salty brine in the can...

fresh is ideal but frozen is good when you can't get fresh

meh
I'm phoneposting here

The potato/corn thing is usually a quick thing for lunch at work. Microwave only.

I will have to try that corn/cheese thing though. Thanks user (and OP)

canned is goat if you diy

no prob
gotta sleep soon but I'll keep checking this thread and answering questions when I can

thanks for the interest

you're retarded. organic use pesticides, usually more than non organic.

I guess I was talking more about store bought canned

>tfw can walk right past the vegetable isle at the store cuz I get more veg than I can eat for free

>for free
Do you take the prime quality or second class vegs?

STOP PUTTING CORN INTO MY VEGGIES I CANT DEAL WITH ALL THOSE CARBS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

When I was a kid me and my mom found the tip of a glove in our frozen Broccoli (always wondered if someone else got a finger tip). I'm curious about how common such incidents are and how contamination is usually prevented from reaching consumers.

It's not uncommon for less-developed nations to have a much larger agricultural sector, relative to the population, making fresh produce (in season) easier to aquire.

Bamp

Just found this!
Should I return the damn bag?

Are you working in italy or in one of their foreign factories?

>vegetables are frosty
>screw is not
If you're going to stage stupid shit at least take a spray bottle of water to the screw and freeze it for a while first.

*have you worked

Why is that picture giving me vertigo

it's all good stuff
if its not quality stuff we don't bother with it
stop getting mixed veg then ya dingus
unfortunately it can happen. we use blue gloves so they're visible incase part of one falls in. usually the gloves tear without falling apart though
>screw doesn't have frost on it
fake
nice try

I was in the original thread. Have a bump.

>tfw you've wasted so much time in one of the worst quality boards on Veeky Forums

forgot my name.
spent all day cleaning every floor drain in the plant today today
it's to make sure the plant is clean as fuck but damn its monotonous work

welcome back

idk, Veeky Forums is alright, there are worse boards

just make sure to filter out all the fast food/"For me, it's the" threads

no u.

the stuff we grow is no pesticide. not sure about stuff grown elsewhere.

you are right in that there are certain natural, non-synthetic pesticides approved by the feds for organic use in certain circumstances. but their use is strictly controlled so they tend to be used sparingly (assuming the company is reputable)