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 beta-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 beta-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 beta-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.