what is blanching

Blanching is a cooking process that involves scalding a food, usually a vegetable or fruit, in boiling water for a brief, timed interval, and then immediately cooling it by plunging it into iced water or placing it under cold running water to halt the cooking process). Blanching is often used as a treatment prior to freezing, drying, or canning vegetables or fruits, as it helps reduce quality loss over time. The process has three stages: preheating, blanching, and cooling). The benefits of blanching include inactivating enzymes that preserve color, flavor, and nutritional value, removing pesticide residues, and decreasing microbial load). The most common blanching methods for vegetables/fruits are hot water and steam, while cooling is either done using cold water or cool air). However, drawbacks to the blanching process can include leaching of water-soluble and heat-sensitive nutrients).