42 



MISC. PUBLICATION 54 0, U. S. DEFT. OF AGRICULTURE 



tinuous-tray blancher, the effective blanching area must be greatly 

 enlarged to achieve the same blanching capacity (fig. 21). This is 

 necessitated by the lighter tray loading as compared to belt loading. 

 The multibelt-continuous blancher is not suitable for use with cabbage 

 or other products that are difficult to handle after blanching. It is 

 compact, but more difficult to build than the continuous-belt blancher. 



Figure 21. 



-Steam-blanched diced carrots being loaded directly from the blancher 

 on drying trays. 



The tank-dip blancher is the simplest form of unit, is generally ac- 

 ceptable only for moderate-scale operation, and is not conducive to 

 highest quality of product. 



SULFURING VEGETABLES 



The treatment of certain vegetables with sulfite solutions prior to 

 dehydration has been used and recommended considerably in England, 

 Australia, and Canada during the past 2 years, but has not been 

 applied commercially in the United States until recently. It has 

 been adopted with some reluctance in the United States because of a 

 general antipathy toward sulfur dioxide in any form as a food pre- 

 servative. However, its accepted use in dried fruits and the definite 

 improvement in retention of palatability, color, and ascorbic acid 

 through processing and storage of dehydrated cabbage treated with a 

 sulfite solution, ultimately forced its acceptance. Recent Govern- 



