Question

Treatment of fruits and vegetables with boiling water or steam for a short period followed by cooling prior to canning is:

• A. Blanching
• B. Sterilization
• C. Pasteurization
• D. Curing

Hint:

To check if blanching is successful, food scientists test for the presence of Peroxidase. If the enzyme is dead, the blanching was sufficient.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Before canning, fruits and vegetables are often given a brief dip in boiling water or steam, just long enough to stop the natural enzymes like peroxidase and catalase from causing browning and off flavours, and this is immediately followed by rapid cooling. This short heat and cool cycle is called blanching. It differs from pasteurization or sterilization, which use heat mainly to kill microorganisms rather than just deactivate enzymes, so the process described here is blanching.