{"id":1052993,"date":"2026-09-09T12:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1052993\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T12:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:55:14","slug":"food-expert-says-fresh-frozen-and-canned-produce-are-all-nutritious-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1052993\/","title":{"rendered":"Food expert says fresh, frozen, and canned produce are all nutritious options"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 Fresh fruits and vegetables may seem like the obvious choice in the produce aisle, but a food science expert says frozen and canned options can also be nutritious choices.<\/p>\n

Shannon Combust, an assistant professor and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, said the most significant differences between fresh, frozen and canned produce often come down to processing, texture and appearance \u2014 not whether the food is healthy.<\/p>\n

Fresh produce is generally defined as food that has not gone through thermal processing, Combust said. Its nutritional content depends on the type of fruit or vegetable and how ripe it was when harvested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nutritional content of the fresh produce is available as it exists in nature, depending on the variety of the fruit or vegetable and the ripeness at which it was harvested,\u201d Combust said.<\/p>\n

Frozen vegetables can be a strong alternative. Some are blanched before freezing, which can cause a small loss of nutrients. Rapid commercial freezing, however, can help preserve much of the nutritional value that was there at the start.<\/p>\n

Canned vegetables often go through more intense heat and pressure during processing. That can change some qualities of the food, and Combust says those changes are not always about nutrition.<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly you\u2019re looking at textural color changes rather than anything I would say, which is quality, not nutrient,\u201d Combust said.<\/p>\n

That means a different texture or different color does not necessarily make canned vegetables an unhealthy choice.<\/p>\n

For families trying to stretch their grocery budgets, Combust said there is nothing wrong with buying canned or frozen fruits and vegetables. <\/p>\n

Shoppers can choose fresh, frozen, canned, or a mix of all three based on price, convenience, and what works best for their household.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Fresh fruits and vegetables may seem like the obvious choice in the produce aisle, but…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1052994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,990,210,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1052993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-food","tag-health","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117241192437181576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1052994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}