Process for improving shelf-life of fresh cut vegetables and food products produced thereby
AssigneeCornell University
InventorsSyed S. H. Rizvi, Vipul Prakash Saran
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to, inter alfa, processes for improving shelf-life and flavoring of fresh-cut/fresh vegetables, as well as food products produced by these processes. In accordance with the present disclosure, the processes generally include various new combinations of steps such as blanching, air drying, supercritical fluid processing with and without a processing aid, pressurization, de-pressurization, and packaging. The present disclosure further relates to methods of preparing edible food products that incorporate the processed fresh-cut vegetables, as well as the food products produced by these methods.
Claims19
A process for improving shelf-life of cut vegetables, comprising the steps of:
- blanching cut vegetables;
- packaging said cut vegetables in a sealed gas permeable/breathable container;
- processing said cut vegetables within said sealed gas permeable/breathable container and comprising subjecting said cut vegetables within said sealed gas permeable/breathable container to a supercritical fluids procedure, wherein said supercritical fluids procedure of said processing step comprises subjecting said cut vegetables to a supercritical fluid and a processing aid;
- and
- depressurizing said cut vegetables within said sealed gas permeable/breathable container, wherein said depressurizing step comprises a first depressurizing step and a second depressurizing step, wherein said first depressurizing step is executed at a first depressurization rate that deposits said processing aid within a cellular structure of said cut vegetables while within said sealed gas permeable/breathable container, wherein said second depressurizing step is executed after said first depressurizing step and at a second depressurization rate, and wherein said first depressurization rate is faster than said second depressurization rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.