August 31/Izmir, Turkey/Food Weekly News According to a study from Izmir, Turkey, "Ohmic blanching could be used as an alternative fast blanching method in vegetable processing. Artichoke is a vegetable that is a good source of natural antioxidants."
"In this study, artichoke byproduct was pretreated with ohmic blanching (25 and 40 V/cm at 85C) and water blanching (at 85 and 100C). The ohmic blanching (40 V/cm) at 85C was able to show similar peroxidase inactivation times (310 +/- 2 seconds) with the water blanching at 100C (300 +/- 2 seconds). The retention of vitamin C and the total phenolic content was found to be highest in the byproduct blanched ohmically by 40 V/cm voltage gradient at 85C. Blanched artichoke byproducts were then dried in the fluid-bed drier. The drying process was optimized by using response surface methodology. Optimum drying parameters were obtained as 80C, 0.8m/s and the pretreatment of ohmic blanching at 40 V/cm voltage gradient," wrote F. Icier and colleagues, Ege University.