HELP! Ice on my frozen fruit in the Lock 'n Lock in freezer.

The only way to totally avoid the ice is to vacuum seal the fruit.

I agree - L&L is great. But the fact of the matter is that there will be air in there and the air and natural moisture from the fruit will work against you to create the ice crystals and, eventually, freezer burn.

L&L (or any such thing) is only airtight to the extent that it keeps air from circulating in and out of the container but there WILL be some air in the container. With vacuum sealing, you eliminate the food from being exposed to ANY air and, thereby, you avoid having the ice crystal problem.

With each bag of fruit I'd probably just break it down into serving sizes, freeze it in a L&L, or some way, and then ASAP remove it from the container and vacuum seal it for the actual freezer storage.

The oxygen in air is the enemy here so, unless you can remove every bit of air, you will have these problems with freezer storage..

I have a tip that may help...

I loosely wad up pieces of waxed paper and lay them on top of most everything I'm freezing. Put the lid on and place container in the freezer. The ice crystals will form on the waxed paper and not, so much, on your food.

Very interesting, Tabbycat!

One thing, too, is that if you still have one of the older refrigerator freezers that does NOT self-defrost you can get more time on frozen foods that have moisture in them. For some reason related to the scientifics of whatever it is that is involved in the self-defrosting ones food will get ice crystals and freezer burn much more quickly. Maybe somebody else knows the ACTUAL details about that, hopefully.

Hi CB.. basically what is happening is that the self defrosting freezers have a great tendency to remove humidity as part of the self defrosting process and when this happens the food will significantly dry out and the water from the drying is trapped as crystals.

As said previously, the really only way to prevent this crystallization is to physically prevent any space that would allow crystals to form and this is done with a strong vacuum.

Hope this helps..

I do strawberries only - air is your problem and although "Chris" tells us Lock/Lock is freezer safe, what she doesn't expound on is ......LL can't REMOVE the air. Only Food Saver can do that. (I have a Food Saver machine) but don't bother to use it on berries.

What I do after cleaning the berries - I put about 2 cups of berries in a Baggie and remove as much air as I can - close with a twist-tie and put it in a Zip Lock. Usually put about 2 or 3 baggie filled berries in one.

Result: no ice and I also had strawberries for a Vitamix smoothie yesterday.

I want to thank each of you for your responses. Years ago I had an actual Food Saver, and I used it for some time for refrigerated food. Somehow, it was not delivering the optimal results on everything I used it for. Some items were sealed properly while some would not seal at all. I finally gave up frustrated and gave the Food Saver away.

Before I buy another one, I will try the wax paper suggestion.

Again..thanks everyone!

On 1/23/2015 Tabbycat said:

I have a tip that may help...

I loosely wad up pieces of waxed paper and lay them on top of most everything I'm freezing. Put the lid on and place container in the freezer. The ice crystals will form on the waxed paper and not, so much, on your food.

That's an awesome idea. I'll have to tell my husband. Every summer he freezes fresh raspberries, peaches, and blueberries. They always have ice on them. He does not use L&L but uses what he calls "commercial grade" containers. Thanks for that info!