Quality of home frozen vegetables

Abstract
Summary: Home frozen vegetables are normally blanched in water and cooled in iced water before freezing. In this survey, the effects of common household additives to blanching and/or cooling water were studied. Runner beans, peas, perpetual spinach and brussels sprouts were assessed by a tasting panel after being blanched and/or cooled in one of the following solutions, 1·2% NaCl, 2·0% NaCl, 1·2% sucrose, 0·25% sodium carbonate or 0·25% sodium bicarbonate, and stored at – 18°C. The appearance of sprouts was slightly improved by 1·2% NaCl and 1·2% sucrose blanching liquids. Flavour of runner beans was significantly increased by the use of 1·2% salt, but the 2% levels significantly lowered scores for appearance and texture. Sugar significantly lowered texture scores for beans, but improved those for peas. Quality of spinach was not significantly affected by any treatment. Carbonate and bicarbonate treatments tended to have an adverse effect on texture and appearance.Vitamin C analyses for thawed frozen sprouts blanched in 1·2% NaCl or 1·2% sucrose showed that the treatments did not lower the ascorbic acid content.

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