Putting foods into metal cans or glass jars is the major food-processing method of the world. It is particularly useful in developing countries where refrigeration is limited or nonexistent. In the canning process, vegetables are often cut into pieces, packed in cans, and put through severe heat treatment to ensure the destruction of bacteria spores. The containers are sealed while hot so as to create a vacuum inside when they are cooled to room temperature. Properly processed canned vegetables can be stored at room temperature for years. Minor defects of the process, however, will result in bulged cans after long periods of storage. For safety reasons, the contents of these cans should not be consumed. Although in most cases bulged cans are caused by the formation of gas from chemical reactions between the metal cans and their acidic contents, there is a remote possibility that inadequate heat processing did not destroy all bacteria spores. And, even though most heat-resistant spores are nonpathogenic, spores of Clostridium botulinum can survive underprocessing and produce deadly toxins that cause botulism.

Unfortunately, because of the severe heat treatment, some canned vegetables can have inferior quality and less nutritive value than fresh and frozen products. The nutrient most susceptible to destruction in canning is vitamin C.

For high-quality products, aseptic canning is practiced. Also known as high-temperature–short-time (HTST) processing, aseptic canning is a process whereby presterilized containers are filled with a sterilized and cooled product and sealed in a sterile atmosphere with a sterile cover. The process avoids the slow heat penetration inherent in the traditional in-container heating process, thus creating products of superior quality.

The canning process can be illustrated by the example of green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). After arrival at the processing plant, the beans are conveyed to size graders. Graders consist of revolving cylinders with slots of various diameters through which the beans fall onto conveyers. The conveyers carry them to snipping machines, where their tips and stems are cut off. The snipped beans then pass over inspection belts, where defective beans are removed. Smaller beans are canned as whole beans, while larger beans are cut crosswise by machine into various lengths. Some smaller beans are cut lengthwise and marketed as French-cut beans. Both the small whole and cut beans are blanched for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in 82 °C (150 °F) water and mechanically packed in cans. The cans are then filled with hot water and dry salt or with brine, steam-exhausted for approximately five minutes, and sealed while hot or with steam flow. Depending on the size of the can, they are heat-processed for various periods of time—from 12 minutes at 120 °C (250 °F) to 36 minutes at 115 °C (240 °F). The cans are cooled to room temperature, labeled, and packaged for storage or immediate distribution.

Freezing

Frozen foods have outstanding quality and nutritive value. Indeed, some frozen vegetables, such as green peas and sweet corn, may be superior in flavour to fresh produce. The high quality of frozen foods is mainly due to the development of a technology known as the individually quick-frozen (IQF) method. IQF is a method that does not allow large ice crystals to form in vegetable cells. Also, since each piece is individually frozen, particles do not cohere, and the final product is not frozen into a solid block. Various freezing techniques are commonly used in the preservation of vegetables. These include blast freezing, plate freezing, belt-tunnel freezing, fluidized-bed freezing, cryogenic freezing, and dehydrofreezing. The choice of method depends on the quality of end product desired, the kind of vegetable to be frozen, capital limitations, and whether or not the products are to be stored as bulk or as individual retail packages.

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Most vegetables frozen commercially are intended for direct consumer use or for further processing into soups, prepared meals, or specialty items. Advances in packaging materials and techniques have led to bulk frozen products being stored in large retortable pouches. Many restaurants and institutions prefer bulk frozen soups packaged in these pouches because of their quality and convenience.

One of the most important vegetable crops preserved by freezing is sweet corn (Zea mays L.). Both corn on the cob and cut corn are frozen. Sweet corn must be harvested while still young and tender and while the kernels are full of “milk.” After the ears are mechanically harvested, they are promptly hauled to the processing plant, where they are automatically dehusked and desilked. Probably more than any other vegetable, sweet corn loses its quality rapidly after harvest. Frozen corn maintains high quality by being processed within a few hours of picking. Corn on the cob is a particularly difficult vegetable to freeze. The dehusked and desilked ears are thoroughly washed and blanched in steam for 6 to 11 minutes and then promptly cooled. However, even an 11-minute blanch in steam does not completely inactivate all the enzymes in the cob portion. It is believed that the off-flavour frequently found in home-frozen corn on the cob comes from off-flavours produced in the cob that migrate out to the kernels. Blanched and cooled corn is quickly frozen by the fluidized-bed freezing process before packing. Blanched whole-kernel corn is produced either by blanching the corn on the cob before cutting; by partially blanching on the cob to set the milk, then cutting and blanching again; or by cutting before blanching. The “split” method of blanching twice produces the highest-quality product. After the corn is cut, impurities such as husk, silk, and imperfect kernels must be removed by either brine flotation or froth washing. In both methods the sound corn stays at the bottom while the impurities float off the tank. Whole-kernel corn can be frozen quickly using the individually quick-frozen method. Frozen corn can be packaged into polyethylene bags or cardboard cartons and labeled for retail, or it can be bulk-stored for further processing into components of value-added products such as frozen dinners.