Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 3 — Observational / field trialPeer-reviewed

Thermal degradation of vitamins in vegetables

Rehman, Z. & Shah, W.H.

2005

Read source ↗ All evidence

Summary

This paper, published in Food Chemistry, investigates how thermal processing — such as boiling, blanching, or cooking — degrades vitamins in vegetables. The authors likely quantify losses of heat-labile vitamins, particularly vitamin C and B vitamins, across different processing conditions. The findings contribute evidence to understanding nutrient losses in the food supply chain between harvest and consumption.

UK applicability

Although this study was likely conducted in a Pakistani laboratory context, the underlying chemistry of vitamin thermal degradation is universally applicable. The findings are broadly relevant to UK food preparation guidance, domestic cooking advice, and food processing industry standards concerning nutrient retention.

Key measures

Vitamin retention (% loss); vitamin concentrations (mg/100g) pre- and post-thermal treatment; potentially temperature and duration variables

Outcomes reported

The study measured the extent to which common thermal processing methods reduce vitamin content in vegetables, likely reporting percentage losses of key vitamins such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C), thiamine, and other heat-sensitive micronutrients under varying cooking conditions.

Theme
Nutrition & health
Subject
Fruit & vegetables
Study type
Research
Study design
Laboratory experimental study
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
Pakistan
System type
Food supply chain
Catalogue ID
XL0284

Topic tags

Pulse AI · ask about this record

Dig deeper with Pulse AI.

Pulse AI has read the whole catalogue. Ask about this record, its theme, or how the findings apply to UK farming and policy — every answer cites the underlying studies.