Frozen Fruits - Healthy, Low calorie, Low Fat

Summer fruit berries are fantastically healthy and very low in calories. One problem with fresh fruit though, is they don’t have a long shelf life, often only one or two days. And as soon as they’re picked, they start losing valuable nutrients.

Frozen fruit as sold in stores, is frozen soon after picking, thereby retaining a greater number of vitamins and minerals.

Tesco sell packs of frozen Summer Fruits which contain a selection of blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. One 80g serving is equal to one of your five a day and has just 21 calories. Or, you can eat the whole 500g pack for 135 calories!


Tesco’s Summer Fruits is sold in a 500g clear pack with a cardboard outer sleeve. The fruit have been freshly frozen and it shows by their vibrant colours. The larger fruits – blackberries and raspberries, are a decent size too.

Frozen berries are handy for keeping in the freezer, particularly for using in recipes if you don’t have any fresh fruit to hand. But I love popping them into a blender along with some natural yogurt and a bit of milk to make a deliciously thick and icy smoothie. It’s also a good way to incorporate healthy little fruits such as redcurrants which aren't so often purchased and eaten on their own.

Inside the pack before opening

Frozen summer fruits have an extremely long shelf life. According to the label on the Tesco pack, they’ll keep in the freezer for well over a year. In fact, it has a best before date of March 2014 and they were purchased in September 2012.

Tesco Frozen Summer Fruit 

If you want to eat them fresh, the pack recommends defrosting for at least 2.5 hours at room temperature, or 12 hours in the fridge. Like most foods, they mustn't be refrozen.

The exact ingredients are: 

Blackberries (40%), Raspberries (25%), Blackcurrants (25%) and Redcurrants (10%).

Tesco also have a NEW frozen fruit pack. This one is a bit smaller at 350g and contains frozen blueberries and strawberry slices. The proportion of fruit is 50% strawberries and 50% blueberries.

Alternatively, if you shop at ASDA, you could try their selections of frozen fruit. This pack is called Summer Fruits and contains a powerful antioxidant mix of SIX types of berries:

Strawberries, blackberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, blueberries
and raspberries.

The fruit is frozen within hours after harvesting to lock in freshness. Eating 100g of this fruit is worth 33 calories and the pack size is 500g.

ASDA frozen summer fruits 

Check out the freezer section of your supermarket as many stores sell their own versions of frozen fruit. Sainsbury's do a selection of frozen bananas and strawberries as well as tropical fruits and mixed berries.

Suitable for vegetarians.

Nutrition information per 100g (Summer Fruits): 27 calories, 1.0g protein, 5.4g carbohydrate, 5.4g sugars, 0.2g fat, 0g saturates, 1.5g fibre, trace salt. 62mg Vitamin C (82% RDA).

Nutrition information per 100g (Blueberries & Strawberries): 36 calories, 0.7g protein, 7.8g carbohydrate, 7.8g sugars, 0.2g fat, trace saturates, 3.2g fibre, trace salt.

© Diets and Calories 2012