The Nutritive Value of Canned Foods

Abstract
Studies have been made of the vitamin retention in canned foods as produced under commercial canning practices. The investigation involved nine vegetables and one fruit, and the canning procedures of twenty-seven different canning establishments. A total of eighty-nine different samplings of foods was subjected to vitamin analysis. Samples were taken for vitamin assay as the products entered the canning line and again when the finished product emerged from the cooling canal and, frequently, at intermediate stages along the canning line. These samples were assayed by recognized methods of assay for two or more of the following vitamins: ascorbic acid, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Samples were also analyzed for dry matter. Vitamin values have been expressed on the basis of the samples as assayed and also on the dry weight basis. The following observations were made: Ascorbic acid retention was found to be excellent in tomatoes and tomato juice, good in cherries and carrots, fair in asparagus, corn and spinach, and poor in snap beans, lima beans and peas. Carotene retention was excellent in asparagus, cherries, spinach and tomatoes, good in carrots, corn, peas and tomato juice, and fair in snap beans. Thiamine retention was excellent in tomatoes, good in tomato juice, fair in asparagus and carrots, and poor in snap beans, lima beans, corn, peas and spinach. Riboflavin retention was excellent in asparagus, tomatoes and tomato juice, fair in lima beans, corn, peas and spinach, and poor in snap beans. Niacin retention was excellent in asparagus, spinach, tomatoes and tomato juice, fair in carrots and corn, and poor in lima beans and peas.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: