THE EFFECT OF PROCESSING ON VITAMINS 



IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



A REVIEW 1 



By C. R. Fellers Research Professor of Horticultural Manufactures 



The public is nutrition conscious. The discovery of the vitamins as essential 

 factors in human and animal nutrition has led to much confusion and mis- 

 information in the minds of many persons. In time, as science slowly unfolds 

 the true story of the vitamins in their relations to health and disease, the facts 

 as to sources, stability, requirements, and functions of these substances will be 

 clearly denned. That time has not yet arrived. This bulletin sets forth in the 

 form of a review of investigations the present status of our knowledge on the 

 stability of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and G in fruits and vegetables when subject- 

 ed to varied conditions of storage, freezing, drying, and canning. No attempt is 

 made to present a monograph on the subject, and special attention has been 

 paid to the more recent investigations. It is hoped that the facts presented 

 will serve to give a clearer concept of the effect of certain environmental factors 

 on the vitamins. Frozen, canned, and dried fruits and vegetables are very 

 widely consumed and form a considerable proportion of the human dietary. 

 The retention of the vitamins in these processed foods is of the greatest health 

 interest. This bulletin sums up investigations carried on in other laboratories, 

 as well as extensive studies in this field of research at this station. 



VITAMIN A 



Effect of Maturity and Storage on Vitamin A 



Jones and Nelson (100) found that stage of maturity of tomatoes had no 

 effect on the vitamin A content. Green tomatoes produced as good growth in 

 rats as mature. Morgan and Smith, on the other hand, found much greater 

 amounts of this vitamin in ripe than green tomatoes (154). House, Nelson, 

 and Haber (91) found a lesser amount of A in full-sized green tomatoes than in 

 the fully ripened fruit. However, the A content was the same regardless of 

 whether the fruit was picked ripe or artificially ripened. Bleached leaves of 

 celery, cabbage, and lettuce were much lower in A than the green outer leaves. 

 Kohman, Eddy, and Gurin (108) showed that bleaching destroyed 50 percent of 

 the A in celery. Potatoes and carrots lost no A during several months' 

 storage, according to Richardson and Mayfield (174). Swanson, Nelson, and 

 Haber (207) found no loss in storing sweet potatoes for several months at 

 ordinary temperatures. Morgan and Field (147) showed no loss of A in peaches, 

 prunes, and apricots at 32° F. Manville and Chuinard (131) proved that some 

 A was lost in pears on prolonged storage. Manville, McMinis, and Chuinard 

 (132, 133) showed that prolonged storage of apples was less destructive to 

 vitamin A than to C. 



'Read at the 92nd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Division of Agricultural and 

 Food Chemistry, September 10, 193fi, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



