BLANCHING

BY:
DIVYA ADDANKI
MSC FOOD SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
BLANCHING

Blanching is a mild heat treatment applied to freshly harvested fruits and

vegetables to maintain their physical and physiological properties of the produce.
Blanching is used to deactivate enzymatic activity in vegetable and some fruits
prior to other processing as well as freezing or dehydration or canning or thermal
processing. In some of the fruits and vegetables poly phenol oxydase enzyme is
responsible for discoloration in presence of oxygen. Basically, blanching is carried
by two methods, Steam blanchers and Water blanchers. To reduce the impact of
the applied pesticide and insecticide the harvested produce is blanched before the
consuming or processing. the blanching also enhances the self-life, overall
acceptability and storage life of the treated produce.
Purpose and objectives of blanching

1. To soften the tissue to facilitate packaging

.2. To avoid damage to the product.

3. To eliminate air form the product.

4. To preserve the natural cooler.

5. To destroy or retard certain undesirable enzymes.

6. To help preserve natural flavor.

How blanching is effective as a pre-treatment for fruits and
vegetables

In some of the fruits and vegetables poly phenol oxydase enzyme is responsible for discoloration in
presence ofoxygen. When cut fruits or vegetables are exposed to open environment, then the cut
surface exposed toatmosphere darken and discoloured very soon.

The blanching pre-treatments deactivate the enzymes responsible for discolouration and helps to
maintains its original colour after processing.

Factor Affecting the Blanching of Fruits and Vegetables

1. Type of fruit or vegetable.

2. Size of the pieces of food.

3. Blanching temperature.

4. Method of heating
Factor controlling the rate of Blanching

1. The temperature of the heating medium.

2. The convective heat transfer coefficient.

3. The size and shape of the pieces of food.

4. The thermal conductivity of the food.

General Method of Blanching

Basically, blanching is carried by two methods:

1. Steam blanchers. 2. Water blanchers.

Steam blanching

This blanching method is the more suitable for foods with a larger area of cut
surfaces are exposed to steam asleaching lossesare much smaller in comparison
to using hot-water blanchers.The steam blancher consists of amesh conveyor belt
that carries food through a steam atmosphere in a tunnel. The residence time of
the foodis controlled by the speed of the conveyor and the length of the tunnel.
Hot water blanchers
The hot water blanchers are available in number of different designs. The hot water
blancher holds the foodand dip in hot water at 70–100 0C for a specified time. Then
removes the blanched product for dewatering andcooling.Figure 2: Hot water blancher
machine.The produce fed into the blanching machine is moved through the drum by
internal flights. The heating timefor the blancher is dependent on the speed of rotation
and blancher length. Hot water is re-circulated againand again, food is metered inside the
blancher drum.

Blanching of fruits and vegetables at home:

In modern agriculture practices, to increase the production of thefruit and vegetables

various kind of the fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides are used in higher proportion.
The blanching of fruits and vegetables can be performed at the domestic level. To
perform the blanchingprocess, the fruits or vegetables are collected into a container and
dipped into the water. Then the container,containing the water, is allowed to raise the
temperature 70-90 0C. The produce is dipped into the hot waterfor a pre determine
period of 3 to 10 minutes. After that, the product is taken out and allowed to cool at
theroom temperature.

Advantage of hot water blanching:

Having large holding capacity.

Require a small floor area to operate.

Transportation of raw material and finished produce is easy.

Hot water blancher is suitable for batch processing.

Minimize the wastage of water.

Product quality is maintained.

Loss of heat from water is reduced thus acts as energy saving processing.
 T
Time temperature combination for Blanching of some vegetables

Vegetables Temperature °c Time, min

Peas 85-90 2-7

Green beans 90-95 2-5

Cauliflower Boiling (100) 2

Peppers 90 3-5

Carrots 90 3
Conclusion

ConclusionThe blanching pre-treatments deactivate the enzymes responsible for

discoloration, deactivate the harmfulimpact of insecticide, pesticide on the produce
and helps to maintain its original colour after processing. Theblanching also
enhances the self-life, overall acceptability and storage life of the treated produce.
So overall we can say that, the blanching helps us to maintain and improve the
shelf life of edible food products
References

. Bomben, J. C., Dietrich, W. C., Hudson, J. S., Hamilton, H. K. and Farkas, D.F.
(1975) Yields and sol ids loss insteam blanching, cooling and freezingvegetables.
J. Food Sci. 40, 660–664.2. Cumming, D. B., Stark, R. and Sanford, K. A. (1981)
The effect of an individual quick blanching method onascorbic acid retention in
selectedvegetables. J. Food Process Preserv. 5, 31–37.3. Gilbert, H., Baxerres, J.
L . and Kim, H. (1980) In: P. Linko, Y. Malkki, J. Olkku and J. Larinka n( eds)
FoodProcess Engineering, Vol. 1. Applied Scien ce,London, pp. 75–85