Individually Quick Freezing Operations in Vegetables: a Case Study

Individually Quick Freezing (I. Q. F.) is the latest technology available in freezing and with the advent of the same, it is now possible to preserve and store raw fruit and vegetables in the same farm-fresh condition for more than a year, with the colour, flavor and texture of produce remaining as good as fresh from the farm. Thus, the present study was carried out with a view to study exact process for individually quick freezing, the different contamination found in process vegetables like hair, thread, plastic, worm, metal etc., to estimate the processing cost of IQF vegetables. In IQF, each piece is frozen individually using technique of fluidization resulting in freezing of fruit and vegetables only in 10 to 12 minutes which otherwise takes at least 3 to 4 hours or even more in the blast freezer. This results into better texture and there is no lump/ block formation and the product is free flowing. Frozen foods provides convenient, inexpensive, nutritious and better tasting solutions to the food viz; fresh produce as pre and post harvest handling and transportation seriously effects the nutrient content of fresh produce. The IQF process was studied for the selected vegetables.