Blanching Research Paper

Freezing is an essential preservation method in the food industry. When fresh fruits and vegetables are harvested the enzymes in them begin to change the fruit. They can lose color, nutrients, and their desired taste if not preserved. Along with freezing there are other strategies used to inactivate these enzymes. Vegetables are blanched before freezing and fruit can be dipped in a sugar syrup before freezing to keep them at their best. One of the main problems faced with freezing is a change in texture. When frozen water expands and can cause tissue damage. When the food is thawed it will be mushy and soft because of the tissue damage. When frozen slowly larger crystals will appear and cause more tissue damage. When frozen quickly the ice …show more content…
Texture and drip loss are similar, as more damage to the tissues yields a higher drip loss and a mushier texture, so there should be similarities between the two graphs. However, since blanching softens tissues, a more negative score on the texture scale should be seen with more blanching time. This is seen in the graph. There is a downward trend between blanching time and texture, where the longer the beans were blanched, the mushier they became. There was not a huge difference seen in texture between the freezing methods, but it should be noted the control group, which was frozen in the pilot plant freezer retained its texture the most, which was not expected because it should have had more tissue damage, resulting in a mushier texture. There might have been a mistake with analyzing texture, as the beans with the least amount of tissue damage should have retained a better texture. Overall, blanching times’ effect on texture can be clearly seen by the …show more content…
For this lab in particular it is important to look at the unexpected results as they can be learned from. The most puzzling data comes from the color change. Color change was not seen when expected and was seen when unexpected in both the green beans and the strawberries. All samples lost some color during storage, which was expected, but the specific samples that lost or retained their color did not make much scientific sense. Strawberries dipped in syrup lost a drastic amount of color, which should not have happened as the sugar should have protected from oxidation. The samples might have had to have been stored for a longer period of time to see any drastic color changes differences. The data that made the most sense for both experiments was texture. The fruits and vegetable with slower freezing methods had larger crystals and a mushier texture. All of these factors need to be understood by professionals so the desired product can be made. Judging on the data seen in this lab, they also need to be careful of any minor mistakes as that can greatly affect how freezing alters the characteristics of the food being