The quality of meal elements for professional prepared meals

Meal elements are convenience products which are partially prepared meal components to be used in professional kitchens. Examples are meat, vegetables or fish which are preprepared for example by heat-treatment before distribution to the professional kitchens. The pre-fried vegetables and meat can for examples be used as ingredients in hot or cold dishes. We have evaluated the quality of several kinds of pre-fried vegetables. The vegetables were prepared in pilot plan using a continuous stir-frying process, frozen and analysis during the thawing period. The results show that the shelf life determined by sensory analysis of pre-fried celeriac and carrots was up to 14 days after freezing and thawing at +5°C. In another experiment the aim was to investigate the effects of storage temperature (-2oC and + 5oC) on quality parameters of pre-fried red and green bell peppers during 8 days of storage. The results showed that thawing at -2°C was recommended as the ascorbic acid retention was better and the stability of the green colour was also better. The texture became softer during the storage time for red peppers but was unchanged for green peppers. The results show that the pre-fried vegetables are very robust against freezing, thawing and reheating without excessive drip losses as observed from raw or blanched vegetables. The results show that the pre-fried vegetables have a potential to be used as meal elements for professional prepared meals.