Effect of blanching on texture of bamboo shoot slices In texture analysis of fruits and vegetables, hardness is directly related with the structure of fruit and vegetable tissue and is one of important indexes in evaluating the quality of fruits and vegetables (Zhang et al., 2010). The hardness of FBS and blanched BSS is shown in Fig. 2. The hardness value of FBS was 44.20 N, which decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after blanching treatment. The hardness of BSS reduced to 40.38% at 15 min. This indicated that hardness was significantly affected by blanching time. Furthermore, it also indicated that bamboo shoots softened after blanching treatment, which was in accordance with the research results of Liu & Scanlon (2007) concerning the impact of blanching treatment on the texture of potato chips.