Freezing damage and freeze killing of living plant tissues contrast sharply with problems of commercial freezing preservation of fruits and vegetables. Enzymes of most vegetables and some fruits are inactivated, usually by heat, prior to freezing. Chemical treatments are also used, including sulfiting and freezing in sugar or heavy syrup. Thus the life processes of the ceils are either destroyed or greatly changed, and ice crystal formation is accordingly affected.
The senescent condition of ripe fruits contrasts both structurally and physiologically with the immature stage at which most vegetables are harvested for prime quality. Compositional changes in growth and ripening of fruits have additional bearing on some of the problems encountered in freezing preservation. Included are changes in phenolic compound content, methyl esterification of pectins, and crystallinity of cellulose. In addition, the dehydration of cellulose during freezing may account for changes in textural qualities of frozen fruits and vegetables; cell wall toughening is superimposed on the loss of succulence when membrane semipermeability is destroyed. When cooked potatoes are frozen, gelled starch undergoes marked physical changes which result in a lowered capacity to hold water. This has formed a basis for the control of texture in potato products.
Green beans have tissues at different stages of maturity when they are harvested. The cells of the embryonic parchment layer or fiber sheath of the young pod are very thin walled, and much smaller than the other young parenchyma cells. These cells are the most susceptible to freezing damage, followed by the parenchyma cells of the center of the pod. Cells of the outer parenchyma have relatively thick walls, and often separate from each other with no breakage of the individual cell walls. Thus differences in maturity and structure between plant tissues are highly significant to the pattern of damage produced by freezing.