Why It's Often Better To Choose Frozen Corn Over Fresh

You can buy just about every vegetable in frozen form, which can certainly help ease any worry about letting it go bad before you get around to using it. After all, it can be difficult to use up all of your produce in time. It is commonly accepted that it's better to buy fresh produce over canned or frozen alternatives as often as possible. However, that rule of thumb doesn't apply to corn.

It's often the better choice to buy frozen corn over fresh corn because, as it turns out, corn is quite finicky. As soon as corn is no longer refrigerated, it begins losing nutrients — meaning that corn is already losing plenty of nutrients as it travels from a farm to a grocery store and from the store to your home. Furthermore, not only does corn lose nutrients, but sweet corn will lose its sweetness because the sugar begins turning into starch as soon as it's picked. The solution is to opt for the frozen variety instead. There is, of course, one exception to this rule: if the corn is in season.

The one time you would want to buy corn fresh instead of frozen is during corn season, which is from May to September every year. It's actually very easy to buy super fresh sweet corn since it is grown in every U.S. state. If you do your corn shopping at your local farmers market, then you're guaranteed to get the freshest corn possible. Of course, it's then up to you to eat the corn as soon as possible in order to get the most nutrients out of it as well as the best taste. Consume the corn the same day that you buy it for the absolute best experience.

However, it may not always be possible to incorporate corn into a meal the day that you visit the farmers market. In that case, here's how you store it: With the husks still on, put the corn into a resealable bag or Tupperware container in the fridge. From there, it's recommended that you eat it within two days.