1 week Ago By [email protected] (Chris Corlew)
A great reason to buy from the freezer aisle is to stock up on a lot of food that won't go bad for a long time. Say you make a Costco run. Maybe you pay a hefty price upfront, but then you've got a freezer full of food.
This isn't a bad approach to fluctuating food costs. One of the most dominant stories of the early 2020s has been runaway inflation making your grocery bill rise as steadily as a well-cared-for anthurium. Now, 2025 has seen the implementation of tariffs which promise to make prices rise further, even as prices at stores like Aldi are already skyrocketing .
It's a time of rapid change and prolonged uncertainty. As such, the new tariffs have people stocking up on food , which is not an unreasonable response. The exact percentages of tariffs, which countries the tariffs apply to, which countries are imposing retaliatory tariffs of their own, and whether or not the U.
S. has paused tariffs for certain countries — all of that seems to be constantly shifting. At time of writing, the highest tariffs are against China, with higher tariffs threatened against India, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Again, uncertainty in D.C. makes people want to at least secure their own freezers.
So without panic buying, here are some frozen foods we recommend stocking up on. 1. Frozen fruit blends We might hear a lot about Florida oranges and Georgia peaches, but the United States does not, for the most part, have a fruit-friendly climate.
Almost every fruit you can think of has to be imported to meet demand in the U.S. This is especially true of all of the smoothie fruits, like mangoes, pineapples, strawberries, and bananas.
There might be arguments to be made about how fruit consumption in the U.S. is unsustainable and that something needs to change.
Are tariffs the right answer? That remains to be seen. Most early predictions have costs being passed on to consumers. It would be nice to be able to offer some sort of smoothie alternative, here.
Something like, "don't worry, blueberries grow year-round in Detroit, and they're great in smoothies!" The unfortunate fact is that more than half of the fruit sold in the U.S. is imported.
By imposing these tariffs on imports, the United States government is making it harder for its people to access a main food group. 2. Frozen avocado Bad news for guac lovers.
Many of the U.S.'s avocados come from Mexico, but a good percentage also come from Costa Rica and Guatemala.
Whatever tariff numbers are eventually settled on for those countries, expect the creamy green fruit to get more expensive. The U.S.
simply does not have the avocado-friendly climate that those other countries do. Remember, avocados were not nearly as common on U.S.
menus and dinner tables prior to the North American Free Trade Agreement being signed in 1994; the voracious appetite for avocados in the U.S. is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Freezing avocado does come with some trade-offs. The texture and flavor can change somewhat, which many people find less enjoyable than fresh avocado. That said, it can be somewhat difficult to gauge when an avocado is ripe enough to eat.
A high percentage of Americans' experience with avocados is either having them go bad on the kitchen counter or paying extra for guac at Chipotle. Cutting the fruit into chunks and freezing them keeps things fresher for longer. Frozen avocados have a variety of uses , from smoothies to sauces.
3. Frozen garlic cubes If you've been introduced to the magic of frozen garlic cubes , expect that little timesaver to get a little more expensive soon — the U.S.
imports most of its garlic from China. Sure, garlic grows easily in California, but cheaper production costs in China have led to the U.S.
importing more and more shiploads of bulbs every year. One myth about imported garlic is that it's less safe than domestically grown garlic, but imports are subject to the same food safety standards as the stuff we produce here. Few things kick your dinner up a notch like garlic.
It crosses genres of food, too, enjoyed as part of almost every cuisine on Earth. Of course, garlic is a pain to peel and makes your fingers smelly when you chop it. Frozen garlic is such a time-saver that it's hard to imagine ever having too much of it stored away.
4. Frozen rice Rice will be an interesting crop to watch. The United States is the largest importer of rice in the Western Hemisphere, including imports of millions of tons from Thailand and India.
That means some grocery store items like frozen jasmine rice, basmati rice, and even pre-prepared fried rice could get more expensive. The United States does not grow a lot of the crop — less than 2% of the world's rice is produced here. Despite that, the U.
S. exports roughly 40-45% of the rice that it does grow, accounting for 5% of all the rice traded across the globe. Will this upheaval mean more U.
S. citizens eating more rice produced by U.S.
farmers? The rice imported from Asia is mostly aromatic varieties like basmati or jasmine, whereas the domestic stuff is long-, medium-, and short-grain rice. How much do consumers in the U.S.
crave those varieties? The tariffs could result in more people eating locally, or they could result in consumers angry at lack of choice and farmers angry at diminishing market returns. If rice prices do shake out badly for consumers, that's a cruel twist. It seems especially unfair that rice should be expensive.
It's an abundant, versatile, and filling grain, and the kind of thing you eat a lot of whenever you're in dire financial straits. Having the price of rice go up is a defeating feeling. 5.
Frozen broccoli Most broccoli in the U.S. is produced in California and Arizona, but recent years have seen shortages due to weather factors.
Imports have covered the losses, but the uncertainty around the crop means that prices will likely increase. Mexico is far and away the leading supplier of broccoli to the United States, with Canada and Guatemala rounding out the top three. Broccoli is one of the tastiest, most versatile dinner sides out there.
Sure, the clichéd image of parents making a tentative kid finish a portion of broccoli before being allowed to watch TV is a powerful cultural trope, but broccoli rocks. People have even created award-winning dishes out of frozen broccoli . Besides, frozen broccoli means no chopping.
It's such a perfect freezer staple. Whether or not the North American countries can work out an agreement on produce trading that benefits consumers remains to be seen — picking up a few extra bags of frozen broccoli on your grocery run this week might not be a bad idea. 6.
Frozen California Blend vegetables Your frozen broccoli bag's flashier cousin, the one who always brings more than a plus one to the party. Broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots are a classic roasted veggie combination . The name might suggest a home-grown product, and sure, the U.
S. grows some broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. A huge portion of our consumption of those vegetables, however, is imported from Mexico, Canada, or China.
Every grocery chain seems to have a version of California Blend Vegetables. It's not hard to see why. Two obvious factors are the fact that each of the three cooks at a relatively similar speed, and the fact that each of the three is big, unwieldy, and irritating to chop.
Then again, California Blend Vegetables could be popular simply because they taste delicious with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil. Throw on some turmeric for color, why not — except, of course, that turmeric's probably getting more expensive, too. 7.
Frozen apple juice concentrate Maybe frozen apple juice concentrate isn't an ingredient you think about all the time. It just goes to show how far-reaching these tariffs could potentially be. Both the juice and the packaging are likely to go up in price, as both parts of the final product come largely from China.
The double whammy of both product and packaging increasing in price is likely to affect many grocery items. Frozen apple juice concentrate is a good thing to have on hand if you regularly have a lot of young children in your house. That's not its only use, though.
Frozen juice concentrate can be a secret weapon for cocktails and punches — it's ideal for sangrias and cold ciders. Does summer even happen if you don't get to spend at least a couple of afternoons in the backyard sipping fruit juice-forward frozen cocktails while your kids run off a sugar high? 8. Frozen shrimp Shrimp is another seafood that you might think would be available all over, so why wouldn't we already be relying on U.
S.-based shrimpers? Years of subsidies for foreign shrimp aquaculture and troubling allegations of forced labor being used on Thai shrimp boats have made foreign shrimp cheaper than home-caught prawns. Now, tariffs of anywhere between 10% and 46% are being imposed on all shrimp imports.
The shrimp industry is hopeful that tariffs will benefit U.S. shrimpers.
That may or may not come true, but in the short term? It might be nice to have a couple of extra bags in the back of your freezer. Maybe it's the cultural memory of Forrest Gump happily waving to shore from the shrimp boat he inherited from a dead war buddy, but it seems jarring that more than 90% of all shrimp consumed in the United States is imported. Certainly, the idea of cleaning up labor practices is appealing, as is having more local shrimp available.
Whether or not tariffs are the path to a better life for workers, and cheaper, better food in stores, however, is something that no one can say for certain. 9. Frozen cod Where fish comes from and how those boundaries are determined might be a difficult thing to wrap your mind around.
The ocean, unfortunately, does have international borders, and don't forget about the amount of farm-raised cod in the market. All this adds up to a heavy majority of U.S.
cod imports coming from China, where tariffs are steepest. Still more cod comes from Vietnam, another country with high tariff percentages. Some cod is caught by U.
S. fishers, but not in the quantities that the import market would suggest are necessary to meet demand. Frozen cod potentially becoming more expensive is a bummer because cod is better to buy frozen.
Fresh cod doesn't have a long storage life, and the relatively muted flavor of the fish means that any potential changes due to the freezing process are negligible. In short, it's one of the best fish to buy frozen . Especially if you like fish and chips.
10. Frozen tilapia This versatile whitefish is standard freezer fare. Tilapia is common, but it might be surprising to learn that it's somewhat hard to find in the wild.
Most of the tilapia we eat is farm-raised. On top of that, almost none of it comes from the U.S.
As little as 5% of frozen tilapia consumed in the U.S. is produced here domestically.
The vast majority of the tilapia we consume comes from farms in China, which faces the steepest tariffs. Tilapia is great on tacos, in sandwiches, or on its own. It's a pretty healthy fish, being a lean protein that's also high in things like vitamin B12 and potassium.
Not only that, it's a pretty thin fish, meaning maybe you can probably stack a whole bunch of filets in the back corner of your freezer. If your local grocer is selling a family-size pack of tilapia, now's a good time to grab one. 11.
Honey-battered fried chicken or shrimp Honey is another product that you might think would be abundant anywhere that bees exist. On top of that, honey-battered chicken is a dish with two components that could conceivably be living in your backyard. Honey walnut shrimp, too, if your backyard includes the Georgia coast.
Sure, the United States produces plenty of honey, and those numbers have stayed stable. The issue here is that demand has taken a massive leap in the 21st century. Since 2020, the U.
S. has imported upwards of 70% of its honey. The top suppliers have included Vietnam, Argentina, India, Brazil, and Ukraine.
Vietnam and India currently face large tariffs, and Ukraine's situation is uncertain. Frozen products that rely on honey for flavoring, like frozen fried chicken or shrimp, will likely either be discontinued or face price hikes. It's entirely possible that the tariffs will have effects on food prices that aren't directly tied to where food comes from.
Supply chains are incredibly interconnected. Packaging and packing materials, for instance, could get more expensive. There's a chance that upstream effects like this could make frozen, prepared foods more expensive in general.
If that's the case, maybe now is the time to hone your home frying abilities. Restaurant-quality fried chicken at home is totally possible, even if it takes a little more work. 12.
Ice cream You might think that one agricultural product the U.S. has in abundance is cow products.
Well, this isn't about what the country imports, but how U.S. farmers make money in overseas markets.
The biggest buyers of U.S. dairy are Mexico, Canada, and China — all of whom are facing heavy tariffs.
If those countries start to look elsewhere for dairy, U.S. dairy farmers could try to recoup losses by charging more at home.
As it stands now, dairy farmers in the U.S. are simultaneously facing higher costs and lower prices, even without tariffs that directly impact them.
Even the 90-day pause on tariffs brings little to no relief to the people raising our beef. A freezer full of ice cream isn't the healthiest coping mechanism, but it's an honest coping mechanism. We don't know what toll the tariffs will end up taking.
Having plenty of ice cream to get through the bad news is something to think about. 13. Reese's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Dairy Cup Dessert Things are looking bleak for the idea of cheap candy bars.
The Hershey Company sources a lot of its chocolate from the Ivory Coast and Ecuador, two countries with 10% tariffs or potentially higher. Couple that with ice cream — like in the Reese's Frozen Dairy Cup — and you get a lot of ingredients that come from heavily-tariffed countries. It's looking like it'll be an expensive summer that leads into an expensive Halloween.
If you enjoy the taste of crunchy chocolate and cold peanut butter, now might be the time to pick up a couple of extra Reese's Frozen Dairy Cups. This is an article about frozen foods to stock up on, but let this be a catchall warning for anyone who likes candy bars or candy bar and ice cream crossovers. The days of one-dollar vending machine snacks are long gone, and who knows how much cash you're going to need on hand when you approach an ice cream truck or cart?.
