Can You Freeze Blue Apron Meals? How to Store Them?
Blue Apron meals are one of the many food suppliers that deliver your premade meals to your doorstep. They are fresh, delicious, and nutritious, but what makes Blue Apron meals different from the other food delivery services is that you have the option to cook the meal by yourself. They take much pride in the fresh and organic ingredients they use to make the meals and the ingredients they ship. This makes the Blue Apron meals all-natural and without additives that would prolong their shelf life. Although organic and natural is what you want in a meal, it still poses a problem in terms of duration and storage. So, can you freeze Blue Apron meals, and how to store them?
You can freeze the Blue Apron meals you cook by yourself, while the ready-made Blue Apron meals arrive frozen at your doorstep, and you cannot refreeze them. You can store both types of Blue Apron meals in the fridge for up to a week, but you mustn’t leave them at room temperature for longer than two hours.
Since Blue Apron meals are not quite like the other food delivery services working in the same line of business, you can easily make the mistake of storing them improperly. It would be a shame to let a Blue Apron meal go to waste because you lacked information. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, I will explain how to store Blue Apron meals and whether or not you can freeze them.
How to Store Blue Apron Meals?
Blue Apron meals offer ready-made meals delivered frozen to your doorstep, meal ingredients, and the recipe and steps. Depending on which option you have selected, the storage conditions differ.
If you select the ingredients and the recipe and cook the meal yourself, you should store it just like any other home-cooked meal. Since the meal doesn’t contain shelf-life prolonging ingredients, it will be easily perishable.
Therefore whatever you cook, do not let the food sit at room temperature, and be especially careful if you’re cooking seafood. Seafood is incredibly perishable, so don’t let it be at room temperature for over an hour. In the case of another meal, the maximum time it can sit at room temperature is two hours.
Refrigerate your meal in an airtight container or a regular plastic container sealing the lid safely with plastic foil or duct tape. In the fridge, the Blue Apron meal you cooked yourself will be good for three to seven days, and seafood will do well for up to four days.
These meals will be good for up to a month in the freezer. Pay close attention to what you freeze, as not all food does well when defrosted.
If you have ready-made Blue Apron meals delivered to your doorstep, they will be already frozen, and you will have to heat them. After you have defrosted and reheated them, you cannot freeze the Blue apron ready-made meals again. Therefore, you should either place them in the freezer directly after delivery, without even opening them, or place them in the fridge if you plan to have them within the next seven days.
Refrigerated, a defrosted Blue Apron meal will be good for up to seven days. Do not freeze the meal after this time, as it doesn’t handle being frozen twice. After the second defrosting, your meal will significantly lose integrity and will become runny and gooey.
Blue Apron has considered this, so the meals are divided into small portions, so you probably won’t even have that much leftover to store long term.
How to Reheat Blue Apron Meals?
Blue Apron recommends that you reheat the meals in the microwave. However, it won’t be a tragedy if you use another appliance. Still, if you have a microwave, use it.
The main thing is to gradually increase the temperature and don’t reheat frozen meals. Let the meal thaw and soften, and pop in the appliance to heat it up.
How Long Do Blue Apron Meals Last?
Blue Apron meals, whether the ones you cook by yourself or the ready-made ones, are highly perishable as they contain all-natural ingredients. Therefore, you cannot keep them in the fridge for longer than a week.
If you have ready-made Blue Apron meals, you should refrigerate them immediately after delivery or freeze them if they haven’t defrosted yet. In case of a defrosted or reheated Blue Apron ready-made meal, you shouldn’t refreeze it. Luckily, the ready-made Blue Apron meals are portioned in small portions, just enough for one meal, and you won’t even need to refreeze them.
If you have a Blue Apron meal you made yourself, you cannot leave it for longer than an hour or two at room temperature. In the fridge, it will hold up to seven days; in the freezer, it will be good for about a month.
Are Blue Apron Meals Good After the Expiration Date?
Although they may seem fine, Blue Apron meals should be discarded after expiration. The expiration date is there for a reason, and Blue Apron meals aren’t foods you can have after that time. It isn’t a “best before” kind of thing, but rather, “don’t eat after.”
The food’s molecular degradation starts right after the expiration date, and even though the changes are discrete and not easily visible, you will certainly feel them in your stomach.
