Buying This Food
Look for: Firm, round, plump, bright red berries that feel cool and dry to the touch.
Avoid: Shriveled, damp, or moldy cranberries. Moldy cranberries may be contaminated
with fusarium molds, which produce toxins that can irritate skin and damage tissues by
inhibiting the synthesis of DNA and protein.
Storing This Food
Store packaged cranberries, unwashed, in the refrigerator, or freeze unwashed berries in
sealed plastic bags for up to one year.
Preparing This Food
Wash the berries under running water, drain them, and pick them over carefully to remove
shriveled, damaged, or moldy berries.
Rinse frozen berries. It is not necessary to thaw before cooking.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
First, the heat will make the water inside the cranberry swell, so that if you cook it long
enough the berry will burst. Next, the anthocyanin pigments that make cranberries red will
dissolve and make the cooking water red. Anthocyanins stay bright red in acid solutions
and turn bluish if the liquid is basic (alkaline). Cooking cranberries in lemon juice and sugar
preserves the color as well as brightens the taste. Finally, the heat of cooking will destroy
some of the vitamin C in cranberries. Cranberry sauce has about one-third the vitamin C of
an equal amount of fresh cranberries.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Urinary antiseptic. Cranberry juice is a long-honored folk remedy for urinary infections. In
1985, researchers at Youngstown (Ohio) State University found a “special factor” in cran-
berries that appeared to keep disease-causing bacteria from adhering to the surface of cells
in the bladder and urinary tract. In 1999, scientists at study at Rutgers University (in New
Cranberries