Frozen + Fried == Fresh?

Well, I've now seen it all. According to a recent article, the USDA and a Federal court have decided that because "fresh fruits and vegetables of every kind and character' are perishable agriculture commodities," even battered, fried and then frozen french fries can be classified as fresh vegetables.

By that definition, since ALL agriculture commodities are perishable, all frozen things are fresh. And since you can roll things in batter and then FRY them, and still, all frozen and all cooked things are fresh, since almost all food is perishable. Heck, why not go further. If cooked food is still fresh, and canned food is really just cooked food, Anything in a jar or a can is fresh, too, since it becomes perishable as soon as you open it!

PLEASE, people. Fresh is fresh. Fresh means not frozen, and not cooked. So even if this company argued that coating their fries in batter was like waxing a cucumber, the instant that the batter-coated potato slice hits the hot oil or cools below 0°C (and then stays in the frozen foods section, since it's possible to freeze fruit/vegetables during shipment and then restore them to "fresh" status without any cellular damage), it's no longer fresh -- it's cooked, or frozen, or both!

Posted on March 10th 2007