Blanching is a food processing technique that involves briefly immersing food, usually fruits and vegetables, in boiling water and then immediately cooling it to stop further cooking. The technique deactivates enzymes that can affect the flavor, color, and texture of produce, allowing it to be stored in peak condition. Blanching is often used as a pre-treatment in the food industry to inactivate enzymes that cause browning, textural changes, and off-flavors, and to modify texture, remove the peel, and wilt tissue. Blanching also helps reduce quality loss over time and is critical to the quality of frozen vegetables. Blanching cleanses the surface of dirt and organisms, brightens the color, and helps retard loss of vitamins. It also wilts or softens vegetables and makes them easier to pack. Blanching time is crucial and varies with the vegetable and size. Under-blanching stimulates enzyme activity and is worse than no blanching, while over-blanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins, and minerals. Blanching is easy, and most vegetables can be blanched in about 15 minutes).