We like to talk about how few vitamins contain the current products - depleted soils, GMOs, chemical additives, fertilizers, greenhouse cultivation, and much more, all these turns have become familiar in our everyday life. Alas, often we do buy products that contain fewer vitamins than they could potentially have. But much more often vitamins and nutrients in food we destroy ourselves. After all, we are much more thinking about the taste of food, rather than the preservation of the most important - the vitamin composition.
The question of how to preserve vitamins in food, fortunately, is very relevant. After all, to enrich your diet with vitamins, it turns out, is not difficult.
Classification of products
The first thing you need to know about the rules for preserving vitamins in food is their classification. There are products of long-term storage and perishable products. The first group includes products containing a minimum of water:
- flour;
- pasta;
- cereals;
- sugar;
- vegetable oil.
To the second, products with a high water content:
- vegetables;
- fruit;
- berries;
- meat;
- eggs;
- milk.
The more water in the product, the faster it spoils. Proceeding from this, it can be concluded that "stocks for a rainy day" in the form of buried cellars and cellars, you can make from the products of the first group, but not the second.
In products constantly there are physical, biological, chemical processes, leading, as a result, to their damage. Pickling, preservation, pickling, freezing, drying slow these reactions, but still do not guarantee the eternal safety of food.
Fridge
Preservation of vitamins in food within the refrigerator is much more correct than at room temperature. After three days of storage in the refrigerator, 30% of vitamin C is lost, at room temperature - 50%. The best storage temperature is about 0⁰.
Humidity
The higher the humidity, the better the products containing a large amount of water are stored, and the worse, the products of long-term storage (with low water content).
High humidity (from 80%) is suitable for meat, cheese, vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, flour, sugar, cereals, low humidity - no more than 75%.
Light and air
Another important nuance in the ways of preserving vitamins in food is light. In the light oxidation processes occur in many fats, the color, taste, smell of many products change, "greening" and "germination" take place.
The most sensitive to light green leafy vegetables and oils (they should be stored in dark bottles).
Also it is necessary to exclude contact with oxygen in oils - clogged bottles for liquid oils and buttercups for butter. Vegetables should be stored in plastic bags (uncovered) in the refrigerator.