The Freezing without plastic is the plastic-free, healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional freezing in freezer bags or plastic cans. Bread, meat, baby food, etc. will naturally keep much longer if you freeze them. So you can keep your personal Reduce food waste. How you can best freeze food without plastic and which containers are best suited for freezing, I would like to give you now on the way. Let's go!
Freezing without plastic - containers, food & tips
You always hear that frozen fruits and vegetables are not healthy. This is nonsense. Of course, a few vitamins are lost, but the food remains healthy. Take peas, for example: Freshly harvested peas contain about 22 mg of vitamin C per 100 g of peas. If you freeze the peas and then eat them, they still have a vitamin C content of 20 mg. More vitamins are lost in the refrigerator than in the freezer. So freezing food is a healthy alternative to keep your food longer and preserve the vitamins.
Freezing plastic-free goes in many different ways. You will quickly notice that it is not necessarily "containers". You'll also get many more tips for freezing without plastic.
1. advance tip for freezing without plastic
What I would like to give you at the beginning is the tip that you should fill the jar for freezing only up to ¾ with liquid or water-containing foods. Liquids expand when they freeze, so that a full jar would burst during freezing. It is best to leave the lids of freezing containers on loosely at first and screw them tightly onto the container only when your food is frozen.
2. freeze food in the jar. Plastic free.
If you follow the Plastic free blog for a while now, then you know that reused jars are the perfect plastic-free alternative for storing food. You can buy canning jars here or simply give honey jars or other glass containers a second life. This is sustainable and makes no plastic waste. Fruits, sauces, pickles, meat and many other foods can be wonderfully frozen in glass jars.
3. freeze food without plastic - with paper!
Food can also be frozen in paper without plastic. Maybe you still have a paper bag from the bakery or find some elsewhere. To defrost the food, you should of course take it out of the paper again. Then you can reuse it for other foods. In the spirit of the Zero Waste Lifestyle. By the way, you can also use cardboard boxes for freezing!
4. freeze seasonal food without plastic
If you have your own garden, you know this for sure. You have in winter again desire for berries, rhubarb or other seasonal foods. But in the supermarket, the food is just not available at the time. You can therefore easily collect these foods, freeze them and then enjoy them in winter. Wash the food properly and then freeze it.
5. freezing without plastic in cloth bag
How you can buy your bread plastic-free, I had you already once in the article Plastic Free Living Tips & Tricks explained. Of course, the best way to do this is to bring a cloth bag. But the cotton bag is also suitable for freezing without plastic. You can get really good fabric bags here. But you can also use a cotton cloth for freezing bread and co. I recommend you in any case, cloth cloth or cloth bag still with such a jute ribbon to be tied tightly together. This way you can easily freeze fresh bread for a few weeks.
6. freeze food completely without packaging
Provided the food you want to freeze without plastic is not liquid, of course. 😉 If you want to freeze fruit, you don't actually need a container, do you? Depending on the food in question, you may not need any packaging at all.
7. freeze plastic free in the stainless steel can
Just as you can freeze food in a jar, stainless steel cans are an alternative. If you've been living plastic-free for a few weeks, you probably have some in the house. Otherwise you get here very good stainless steel canswhich I also use myself. When freezing without plastic with stainless steel cans, you should again make sure that you only fill the container ¾ full for freezing, as liquids still expand greatly during freezing.
8. pre-cook more than necessary and freeze plastic-free
If you are already cooking, you can directly prepare a slightly larger portion of which you can then freeze a part without plastic. This way, you already have the dishes prepared for stressful days, which you can defrost when you need to be quick again. A homemade ready meal, so to speak.
9. freezing without plastic in the glass bowl
Besides the usual canning jars, you can also freeze food in a glass dish. Since I can give you these casseroles from Pyrex recommend. The tray is also packaged plastic-free. Again, make sure you only fill the jar up to 3/4 full and only put the lid on when the food is frozen.
10. freeze baby food without plastic - With ice cube molds!
What's that all about, you may be thinking? With such stainless steel ice cube molds you can freeze herbs, coconut oil, sauces and also baby porridge really well. Super cool are the porridge cubes for babies! But you can also freeze so many other things in an ice cube mold that fit into small portions. Try it out!
11. freezing without plastic with wax paper
I'm a little annoyed that I discovered wax paper so late. It is the ideal alternative to cling film and is also ideal for freezing without plastic. Just use it in the same way as when freezing with cloth towels. You can get really good wax paper here.
12. freeze bread without plastic
As already mentioned, you can bread wonderful in a Fabric bag, cloth or also in the Wax paper freeze. Use such a natural jute ribbonto pack the bread tightly. To avoid problems when defrosting, you should cut the bread into slices before freezing. This way you can freeze or defrost exactly the amount of bread you need.
Freezing without plastic - super easy!
You want to freeze your food without plastic? Then I hope that these tips have given you enough inspiration. Because food can be frozen wonderfully in a glass jar, a stainless steel can or even a cloth bag. And isn't it cool to have seasonal fruit at home in the winter? By the way, I envy anyone who has their own garden - growing, harvesting and preserving plastic-free. So now you can freeze your food without plastic in the future. Feel free to write me a comment with your own experiences on the subject of "freezing without plastic" and who knows: Maybe you have another good tip in store?
Best regards,
PS.: Be sure to read my article Plastic free living - tips & tricks through and get more free tips on living plastic-free.
Heard once that it can be dangerous to freeze food (especially for babies) in glass.... Is this true????
Hi Gisa! Not that I know of, why would it be dangerous? Maybe because the food is too hard? I think for babies they should always be nice and soft. So just let them defrost after the plastic-free freezing 🙂
Best regards
Christoph
Hello, my question to you: can I also freeze cakes in a cloth bag?
What about the hygiene regulations for this? I work in a kindergarten.
Thank you for egg answers,
Karin
Hi Karin! It works well for us! The fabric bag should of course be super clean, because a few fibers can already freeze there.
Best regards
Christoph
How can I freeze meat without plastic?
I get a lot done. I wash with ivy, make my own dishwashing and cleaning products, my own step. There is no more aluminum foil or cling film and much more. But I haven't solved this problem yet. Maybe someone knows advice. LG Martina
Hey Buntehenne! In a canning jar or a washable tupperware, for example? I honestly haven't tried it yet, but that seems to make the most sense to me.
Best regards
Christoph
Hello,
on the subject of freezing in fabric, I have the following question/idea.
Kann ich mir aus alten T-Shirts/Pullis/Bettwäsche usw. (100%Baumwolle) kleine Säckchen mit Zugband nähen und darin portionsweise z.B. Brot oder Waffeln oder Beeren einfrieren?
Is this material suitable or do I not even need to bother? 😉
Do I have to use the fabric twice?
Maybe someone has experience?
Love greetings
Andrea
Hello Andrea! It works - at least for us - so go ahead and try it out 🙂 Can others here confirm that? 🙂
Many greetings,
Christoph
Hello Christoph,
your suggestions are great for our environment to avoid waste.
Probably also for our health. Since every kind of plastic is suspected of releasing particles into the food. Therefore, however, to use stainless steel is completely wrong! Alone with the production the environment suffers nevertheless extremely (see e.g. the dumping of thin acid etc.) stainless steel is never an alternative!
Greetings
Hi Mathilda! Thank you for your feedback! But the stainless steel can also last a lifetime if you handle it sensibly. I don't advise anyone to throw away old Tupperware as long as it still works.
Many greetings
Christoph
Hello, a very interesting article, what about meat? We farm ourselves and freeze the meat then vacuum packed in plastic. I wanted to try (eg the fresh minced meat) to freeze in glass or stainless steel, do you think that works or do you have experience?
Hi Maria! There are a few tricks you should know:
Food Freeze meat at temperatures between -18°C to -30°C, so it stays nice and juicy even after thawing. Beef can be kept for about 10 - 12 months and pork for about 6 - 8 months. You should first freeze pieces of meat individually and only then put them together. It is difficult without freezer bags, but you can use reusable freezer bags.
Greetings, Christoph
But what about the taste? Unpackaged or bagged foods do take on a typical "refrigerator or freezer" taste....
Love greetings Hanna
Hi Hanna! No difference in my opinion whether packaged or unpackaged.
Give it a try 🙂
Stay clean,
Christoph
Dear Christoph, first of all, thank you very much for your great site! 🙂 My question: doesn't the bread dry out if you freeze it in paper or even fabric? This happens to me when I leave the plastic bag open. Then it is very tough when defrosted.
Hi Moe, thanks for your comment and your nice feedback 🙂
Bread dries out during freezer burn. You can prevent this by placing a double layer of fabric around the bread and ensuring that the temperature in the freezer compartment fluctuates as little as possible. (It will fluctuate, for example, if the compartment is opened constantly and for a long time. So try to go to the freezer compartment only occasionally and quickly. That should work 🙂
Best regards,
Christoph
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