Blanching and

Canning
• Blanching is defined as the enzyme (heat resistant) deactivation
phenomena, which helps in retaining color, reduction in initial microbial
growth, cleansing the product, product preheating prior to processing,
and gas exhausting from plant tissue, and helps to release carotenoids,
thus enhancing their bioavailability and extractability.
• Blanching reduces the number of microorganisms, removes some air
from the tissues, makes them more compact, and enhances their color.
However, its most important function is to inactivate enzymes that
would otherwise cause deterioration in flavor, texture, color, and
nutrients during storage.
• Reduction of microorganisms is not the major purpose of blanching, and
blanching alone is not adequate for food preservation. Canning, freezing,
and dehydration are used in conjunction with blanching.
• Adequacy of blanching may be monitored by measuring activity of
indicator enzymes. Peroxidase and catalase are used most frequently
because they are heat resistant and their destruction ensures that other
enzymes are destroyed.
• Blanching is accomplished by treating in boiling water or steam. The
length of time required depends on the vegetable and the amount of
enzymes present.
• The time and temperature combination varies from product to product,
the condition and size of product. Generally the temperature varies from
88 to 99 ⁰ C
Blanching time is crucial and varies with the vegetable and
size. Under blanching stimulates the activity of enzymes and
is worse than no blanching. Over blanching causes loss of
flavor, color, vitamins and minerals.
Water Blanching
For home freezing, the most satisfactory way to heat all
vegetables is in boiling water. Use a blancher which has a
blanching basket and cover, or fit a wire basket into a large
pot with a lid.
Steam Blanching
Heating in steam is recommended for a few vegetables. For
broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and winter squash, both
steaming and boiling are satisfactory methods. Steam
blanching takes about 1½ times longer than water blanching.
Microwave Blanching
Cooling
As soon as blanching is complete, vegetables should be
cooled quickly and thoroughly to stop the cooking process.
• It is essential to control the processing conditions accurately to
avoid loss of texture, weight, colour and nutrients. All water-
soluble materials, including minerals, sugars, proteins and
vitamins, can leach out of the tissue,leading to nutrient loss. In
addition, some nutrient loss (especially ascorbic acid) occurs
through thermal lability and, to a lesser extent, oxidation.
• Ascorbic acid is the most commonly measured nutrient with
respect to blanching, as it covers all eventualities, being water
soluble and hence prone to leaching from cells, thermally labile,
as well as being subject to enzymic breakdown by ascorbic acid
oxidase during storage. Wide ranges of vitamin C breakdown are
observed, depending on the raw material and the method and
precise conditions of processing.
• Blanching is an example of unsteady state heat transfer
involving convective heat transfer from the blanching medium
and conduction within the food piece.
Blanching means a short-term heat treatment (70–100 °C) of raw
potatoes or potato pieces.
Several reactions occur.
• Enzymes are inactivated (e.g., polyphenoloxidase) to prevent
discoloration. Often the peroxidase system is regarded as a key
enzyme mirroring the efficiency of enzyme inhibition.
• Reducing sugars are leached off, to minimize the Maillard
reaction, as well as starch pastes, to reduce fat uptake during
frying.
• Blanching for about 20 min at 70–75 °C results in a firm
structure.
• Native pectin methyl esterase is activated to reduce cross-
linking of pectin, and free carboxyl groups may react with
calcium or magnesium liberated from starch granules after
gelatinization to form a thermostable pectin network.
• The addition of calcium to the blanching water intensifies that
reaction.
 Adequacy of Blanching
Adequacy of blanching is determined in terms of inactivation of two most important
and heat resistant enzymes catalase and peroxidase in vegetables and some fruits. If
these are destroyed, then the other significant enzymes would also be inactivated.
Method:
i) Peel and cut the vegetables into small pieces. Weigh 100g of the prepared
vegetable.
ii) Take 400ml water in a beaker and boil. The ratio of water:vegetables is 4:1.
iii) Dip the prepared 100g vegetables in to boiling water and start the timer.
iv) After every 30seconds remove 1g (approx) of vegetables from the beaker and
immediately put in cold water.
v) Take this 1g of sample, homogenized in a motar-pestle.
vi) Filter through a muslin cloth and do the tests for the presence of catalase and
peroxidase enzyme.
Catalase presence test: Take 1ml of extract and add 1ml of H2O2 solution. In the
presence of Catalase, a strong oxygen generation (effervescence) is observed for 2-3
minutes.
Peroxidase presence test: To the same tube to which H2O2 is added, add 0.5ml
guaicol solution. Keep the tube aside for sometime for colour development.
Appearance of red colour confirms the presence of Peroxidase. The time taken from
zero minute to the time when red colour is no more observed is called Blanching time
for the vegetable under study.
 Commercial Canning of Fruits and Vegetables
The term canning refers to a process which involves heating food stuff in hermetically sealed
containers for a specific time at specific temperature to eliminate microbial pathogens that
endanger public health and micro-organisms as well as enzymes that deteriorate food during
storage.
History of canning
• The credit for invention of canning goes to Nicholas Appert, a French confectioner who was
awarded a prize in 1809 by the French government for developing new method of heat
preservation of food in sealed container and after whose name the process of canning is
known as Appertization.
• In year 1810, Appert published the first book on canning entitled “The Art of Preserving
Animal and vegetable substances for many years” which is the first known work on
canning.
• In 1810, Peter Durand got first British Patent on canning of foods in tin or metal containers.
• In 1813, Doukin, Hall and Gamble introduced the practice of post processing incubation of
canned foods.
• In 1825 T Kensett and E Duggett were granted US patent for preserving food in cans.
• Louis Pasteur (1864) discovered that food spoilage was caused by micro-organisms which
were destroyed at elevated temperature and technique was known as Pasteurization. This
understanding helped to form a scientific basis for establishing and revolutionizing the
canning industry.
• 1920 Ball, a mathematician developed mathematical calculation for heat sterilization.
• 1921 Magoon and Culpepper, horticulturist by trade, gave idea of exhausting and vacuum.
CAN Preparation
• Metal cans are mainly used in the national and international trade for canning of fruits
and vegetables. Open top sanitary (OTS) cans are made from tin plates which are very
thin sheets of steel lightly coated with tin (0.00025 cm thick) on both sides.
• During preparation of can, the first step consists of reforming the cans in can reformer
to give them a cylindrical shape.
• The cans are then flanged by using a flanger, which curls the rims/edges outward at
each end.
• One end of the can is now fixed to the flanged can body by means of a double seaming
machine which firstly form the seam and secondly tightens it.
• The finished cans are now tested for any leaks with the help of a vacuum/air pressure
tester.
• Finally, after the filling of the cans with fruits or vegetables the second lid (end cover)
after coding is fixed similarly for airtight sealing of cans.
 Steps involved in canning of fruits and vegetables
Preparation of fruit and vegetables: Preparation of food commodity for canning consists of
washing, sorting, grading, peeling, halving, blanching etc.
1. Raw material selection/receiving: For canning, fruits should be ripe but firm, evenly
matured, free from blemishes, insect damage and malformation. Thus, harvesting at
proper maturity is an important step in selection of raw material for canning.
2. Washing: Fruit and vegetables are generally washed with water to remove dust, dirt and
adhering surface micro-flora. Fruits like peach, apricot etc are lye peeled so not washed
before peeling. On the other hand, washing after peeling removes vitamins and minerals
and should be discouraged. Different methods of washing include soaking or agitating in
water, washing with cold or hot water sprays etc.
3. Sorting and grading: Sorting and grading ensures the removal of inferior or damaged
commodity. For sorting, inspection belt can be used, in addition to trained personnel who
detect poor quality produce unsuitable for canning.
4. Peeling, coring and pitting: These are the primary unit operations for preparing fruit and
vegetables for canning. Depending upon the type of commodity, peeling and coring
methods are selected such as (1) by hand or knife (2) by machine (3) by heat treatment (4)
by using lye solution (caustic soda (Sodium hydroxide) or Potassium hydroxide (1-2%).
Cores and pits in fruits like apple, peach, apricot etc are removed by hand or by machine.
6. Cutting/halving/ slicing: After peeling, the fruits are halved or cored either manually or
mechanically. However, peeled fruit should always be kept submerged in either water,
containing 1-2 % salt solution or acid to avoid enzymatic browning. Peaches, apricot, pears,
tomatoes etc are peeled before canning. However, the fruits which are canned retain
better nutrients as compared to peeled fruits.
7. Blanching: Treatment of fruit and vegetables with boiling water or steam for short
periods followed by immediate cooling prior to canning is called blanching.
8. Browning prevention: By sulphiting (2000-4000 ppm SO2 for 1-2 min), organic acid
treatment etc.
9. Filling in cans: Washed cans are sterilized by dipping in hot water tank or the cans are
passed through a steam sterilizing tunnel before use. Generally plain cans are used however,
for coloured fruits like plums, black grapes; strawberries etc lacquered cans are employed.
10. Syruping or brining: The cans are filled with hot sugar syrup (35-55%) for fruits and
with hot brine (2-10%) concentration for vegetables. The purpose of syruping or brining is
to help in transfer of heat within the food pieces during processing. It also improves the taste
of the canned product, fill up the inter-space between the fruit or vegetables in the can. The
syrup or brine is added to the can at a temperature of 79-820C, leaving 0.32-0.47 cm head
space either manually or in automatic machines.
11. Exhausting: Exhausting is a unit operation in which practically all air from the contents
in the can is removed before sealing. The purpose of exhausting and creation of vacuum is
to create an anaerobic environment in the can that would inhibit microbial spoilage.
12. Seaming/closing: Immediately after exhausting, the cans are sealed by using a double
seamer. Double seaming is a two step operation. In the first operation, the can lid is inserted
on the can body hook by holding and rotating the lid-in-position can between two rollers. This
operation is called as clinching; during which first operation roller gently guides the lid in the
body hook. The next step is to press the seam using the second operation roller, which results
in an appropriate overlap of the body hook and cover hook which results in an appropriate
countersink. Between the cover hook and body hook lies a layer of sealing compound which
ensures the sealing process. The critical parameters for an ideal hermetic seam are body hook,
cover hook, seam thickness, seam width and overlap which need to be carefully controlled to
prevent leakage in the can.
13. Coding/Embossing: Coding of lid of the can is essential to identify the can, once it is
closed.
14. Heat processing: The cans after sealing are immediately transferred to the heating retorts
to achieve sterilization of contents. Generally all fruits and acid vegetables can be processed
satisfactorily in boiling water (100oC) as the presence of acid retards the growth of bacteria
and their spores. While non acidic vegetables (except tomato and rhubarb) are processed at
higher temperatures of about 115-121oC under pressure.
Processing methods: Processing methods differ with the kind of fruit and vegetables to be
processed. The cans containing most fruit and acid vegetables (pH < 4.5) are heated in open
cookers, continuous non-agitating cookers and continuous agitating cookers.
Aseptic canning:
Aseptic canning is a technological advancement of canning process.
• This technique was developed by Martin in 1950.
• In this method, sterilized food is aseptically filled in pre-sterilized cans which
are subsequently sealed in an aseptic environment.
• This method avoids the typical steps like in-can thermal processing and
subsequent cooling of canning. Flash pasteurization is used to sterilize the
food.
• It involves four steps which are carried out in a sequential manner in a closed
interconnected apparatus:
(a) sterilization of food by appropriate flash heating, holding and cooling,
(b) sterilization of cans and lids with super heated steam
(c) aseptic filling of cooled sterile food into sterile cans, and
(d) aseptic sealing of cans with lids.
For example- Tetra Pak system . Aseptic canning yields better quality of product
in terms of colour, flavour, texture and nutrient retention and shelf life.