Impact of the industrial freezing process on selected vegetables -Part II. Colour and bioactive compounds

Teresa Mazzeo; Maria Paciulli; Emma Chiavaro; Attilio Visconti; Vincenzo Fogliano; Tommaso Ganino; Nicoletta Pellegrini

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2015.05.036

Impact of the industrial freezing process on selected vegetables -Part II. Colour and bioactive compounds

Food Res Int. 2015 Sep:75:89-97. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2015.05.036. Epub 2015 May 16.

Authors

Teresa Mazzeo¹, Maria Paciulli¹, Emma Chiavaro¹, Attilio Visconti², Vincenzo Fogliano³, Tommaso Ganino¹, Nicoletta Pellegrini⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science, Parma University, Parco Area delle Science 47/A, I-43124 Parma, Italy.
² Department of Agriculture and Food Science, University of Naples Federico II, via Università 100, I-80055 Portici, Naples, Italy.
³ Food Quality Design Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Food Science, Parma University, Parco Area delle Science 47/A, I-43124 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: nicoletta.pellegrini@unipr.it.

PMID: 28454976
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2015.05.036

Abstract

In the present study, the impact of the different steps (i.e. blanching, freezing, storage following the industrial freezing process and the final cooking prior to consumption) of the industrial freezing process was evaluated on colour, chlorophylls, lutein, polyphenols and ascorbic acid content of asparagus, green beans and zucchini. In addition, the domestic boiling of raw samples was compared with the boiling of frozen storage vegetables. Results showed that the blanching treatment retained phytochemicals in all studied green vegetables and the frozen storage up to 2months did not negatively affected phytochemicals, in particular lutein and flavonoids in almost all samples. On the contrary, colour significantly changed during blanching and frozen storage. The changes of b* (yellowness) and the shift of H° (hue angle) were not coherent with the increase of pheophytin. In addition, the greenness (-a*) was found to increase with the exception of boiled samples in all vegetables. Generally, in boiled frozen vegetables there was a better or comparable retention of bioactive compounds with respect to raw ones, and this was especially true for green beans and zucchini. Colour changes after cooking did not exhibit the same trends among vegetables, being more remarkable for frozen asparagus in comparison with those boiled from raw, but overall comparable for green beans and zucchini. In conclusion, the overall results of the present study suggest that, when the industrial freezing process is well performed, the boiled frozen vegetables do not have a lower nutritional value than the fresh ones.

Keywords: Asparagus; Chlorophylls; Green beans; Lutein; Polyphenols; Vitamin C; Zucchini.