Today’s shoppers are looking for healthy, easy meal solutions, and since March is National Nutrition Month and National Frozen Food Month, it is an excellent time to take a fresh look at frozen foods. Frozen foods currently represent 6.2 percent of sales at food retail. When you consider that frozen foods can offer shoppers A) a nutritious option and B) a convenient meal solution, the opportunity to make frozen foods aisle part of your grocery store’s health and wellness offering is clear.

<p>By: Sue Borra, RD, Chief Health and Wellness Officer for FMI and Executive Director of the FMI Foundation&nbsp;<br /> <br /> <img src="http://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/frozen-food-aisle.tmb-large-350-.jpg?sfvrsn=1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="Frozen Food Aisle" title="Frozen Food Aisle" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;" />Today&rsquo;s shoppers are looking for healthy, easy meal solutions, and since March is <a href="http://www.eatright.org/resources/national-nutrition-month">National Nutrition Month</a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.nfraweb.org/promotions/annual-calendar/march-national-frozen-food-month">National Frozen Food Month</a>, it is an excellent time to take a fresh look at frozen foods. Frozen foods currently represent 6.2 percent of sales at food retail. When you consider that frozen foods can offer shoppers A) a nutritious option and B) a convenient meal solution, the opportunity to make frozen foods aisle part of your grocery store&rsquo;s health and wellness offering is clear.&nbsp;</p> <p>Last fall Emma Gregory, RD, manager of regulatory and technical affairs at the <a href="http://www.affi.org/">American Frozen Food Institute</a> and I conducted a webinar for retail dietitians on &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jih1YXd4Mk&amp;t=11s ">Helping Shoppers take a Healthful Look at the Frozen Food Aisle</a>.&rdquo; Emma shared data from nutrition and menu modeling studies that show how frozen foods are a nutritious and cost-effective choice for consumers. She refers to freezing as &ldquo;nature&rsquo;s pause button&rdquo; and describes how fruits and vegetables are picked at their peak ripeness and then quickly flash, frozen&mdash;locking in the nutritional benefits. In addition, she notes that this process also insures nutrition equivalency or even greater value of many nutrients when compared to fresh items.</p> <p>To help educate shoppers, the American Frozen Food Institute has produced a Supermarket Dietitian Toolkit, <a href="http://howfreshstaysfresh.com/pdf/AFFI%20SRD%20Toolkit_FINAL_Web.pdf">Shopping the Frozen Aisle</a>, which provides background resources for dietitians and helpful materials to share with shoppers. Join the conversation on social media with <strong>#MarchFrozenFoodMonth</strong>. </p>

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