FIRMNESS AND COLOR RETENTION IN BLANCHED GREEN BEANS AND GREEN BELL PEPPER

A comparative study of the effects of single-stage conventional high t emperature - short time (HTST) blanching, two-stage low temperature - long time followed by high temperature - short time (LTLT/HTST) blanch ing, and vacuum infiltration of calcium followed by HTST-blanching on the firmness and color of green beans and green bell pepper was carrie d out. The two-stage blanching procedure significantly improved the fi rmness of the blanched vegetables, but resulted in the development of an olive green/brown color in sharp contrast to the dark green color o f vegetables subjected to HTST-blanching alone. On the other hand, vac uum infiltration of calcium into the vegetable tissues resulted in bla nched materials which were nearly or equally as firm as those subjecte d to LTLT/HTST-blanching and which were equally as green as, if not gr eener than, the corresponding single-stage HTST-blanched samples.