I’m sure there are really organised people in the world, who know exactly what they have in their freezers and can find exactly the container they’re looking for. Sadly, I’m not one of them! My freezer always seems to be jammed haphazardly and it is only thanks to miraculous labels that stay put and don’t fade that I have any idea of what I’ve got in the frozen food line.

Labels for frozen food face far more challenges than labels printed for dry products such as tins. For a start, if a label destined for the freezer was printed from ordinary paper, the odds are that it would come off very quickly, or wrinkle because of condensation.

Label printing issues for frozen food manufacturers and retailers

Frozen food retailers face even more problems, as is made clear in this feature from www.quicklabel.co.uk/applications/frozen-food-labels.html which explains that, unless a special material is used, the text on the printed label can fade with exposure to the lights in the display cabinets, in addition to the risks of coming off at low temperatures. Fortunately, it is possible to use a specially developed white polypropylene material, when you print your own labels on an in-house label printer, to ensure that the labels stay in place and display all the essential information, including logos and use by dates.

This kind of printed label is equally useful for companies whose business is either chilled or frozen food production, as food packaging for the fridge is also at risk of losing its label if it becomes wet and soggy. Some chilled food can be frozen, so the label printing needs to be able to cope with both circumstances. If I think I’ve got problems when I lose a label on a container in my freezer, the situation could be far worse – and potentially very expensive – if the labels were not secure during the manufacturing, packaging, transporting and display stages of the frozen food chain.

Could we make better use of chilled food?

I mentioned earlier that some chilled food can be frozen and this article, at www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/18/food-labels-confusion-wrap-report-bin-it-culture suggests that far more could be done to avoid food being wasted – and going into landfill - if the printed labels made it clearer whether or not the item could be frozen. The usual advice when this is the case is to “freeze on the day of purchase”, but, providing the food is still in date, its life could be extended considerably by freezing it once it becomes clear that it will not be eaten before the expiry of its shelf life.

Of course, this still doesn’t help the totally disorganised freezer owner like me! What I really need is a fool-proof system of storing food so that the same kinds of foods are kept together and the shortest dated foods are always at the top, or at the front of the freezer shelf. That way I wouldn’t end up with frozen hands as I search through for that ice-cream that I know is in there somewhere. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to afford to buy a robot that does it all for me!

About the Author:
Caroline Massey is a keen amateur cook and has worked as a marketing assistant for a cooking magazine for around fourteen years. She is concerned about the amount of food wasted on a daily basis from restaurants and homes and would like to see far better use made of freezing food so that it lasts longer. Her son has recently started at university and is starting to appreciate the values of good home cooking!