Effect of blanching, drying, freezing and storage on degradation of β‐carotene in different fruits

Since biologically active carotenoids play a significant role in metabolism and because of the fact that its stability can be affected by various factors decomposition degree of β‐carotene of various kinds of fruits after drying, freezing, blanching as well as after drying and freezing of blanched fruits has been researched in order to prolong their consumption time‐limit. The β‐carotene content was determined by means of the spectrophotometric method measuring adsorbance intensity at 450 nm. The results of investigation reveal that the decomposition degree of β‐carotene increases significantly with storage time. Depending on the kind of fruits, treatment and storage time it ranged from 6.10% to 68.74%. No significant differences have been found after a longer storage between blanched and non‐blanched fruits, either dried or frozen.