Simple processing such as cutting of vegetables for salad preparation results in 10-15 % loss. Washing of the cut vegetable, particularly leafy vegetables enhanced the losses of carotenes to 30-40 per cent. Leafy vegetables should be washed before cutting to retain more carotenes.
Irrespective of cooking procedures, the retention of total carotene as well as β- carotene was higher in bacchali than in other leafy vegetables which showed wide variations in retention values.
Retention of carotene was lowest when the vegetables were boiled in an open vessel. Keeping a lid on the cooking vessel had some advantage as there was about 10 per cent more retention of carotenes in these vegetables.
Steaming significantly reduces carotene losses in leafy vegetables.
Cooking the vegetables with oil showed greater retention of carotene as compared to other cooking procedures like boiling and steaming.
The carotene content retention remained stable up to 15 days in gogu pickle and 30 days in carrot pickle. Nearly 80 per cent of carotene was lost after 60 days of preservation.
Sauteing by addition of tamarind or tomato in the preparation of dals with amaranth was shown better retention of total 91 per cent and beta carotene 72 percent as compared to ordinary cooking.
In preparation of wet chutneys, no significant loss of β-carotene was observed in gogu, but other leafy vegetables like coriander and curry leaf showed about 25 per cent loss. Preparation of dry curry leaf powder resulted in greater loss in carotene content 40-50 per cent which could be attributed to heat treatment.
Grating and prolonged cooking in preparation of pumpkin halwa showed almost complete loss of carotenes, but in case of carrot halwa there was about 50 per cent retention. The β-carotene content of carrot halwa was found to be 2.7 mg/100g. About 50-60 g of halwa would be adequate to meet the daily requirement of vitamin A of children.
Last modified: Saturday, 10 December 2011, 2:00 PM
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