END-OVER-END THERMAL-PROCESSING OF CANNED VEGETABLES - EFFECT ON TEXTURE AND COLOR

Fresh vegetables (potato, carrot and green bean) were cut into regular shapes, blanched, vacuum-sealed in 307 x 409 cans and subjected to end-over-end rotation in a steam/air retort (retort temperatures: 110, 120 and 130-degrees-C; rotation speeds: 0, 10 and 20 rpm). Heating times were adjusted to give approximately the same process lethality (F(o) = 10 min). Color and texture values of the vegetables were evaluated both before and after processing. Processing under both higher temperatures and higher rotation speeds resulted in better retention (p<0.01) of vegetable texture, while only temperature (the higher the better) had a,desirable effect on color. The results suggest that high-temperature rotational processing as compared to its static counterpart would improve external quality attributes of processed vegetables.