The New Complete Book of Food
Avoid: Baskets of berries with juice stains or liquid leaking out of the berries. The stains
and leaks are signs that there are crushed (and possibly moldy) berries inside.Storing This Food
Cover berries and refrigerate them. Then use them in a day or two.
Do not wash berries before storing. The moisture increases the chance that they will
mold in the refrigerator. Also, handling the berries can damage them, tearing cells and releas-
ing enzymes that will destroy vitamins.
Do not store blueberries in metal containers. The anthocyanin pigments in the berries
can combine with metal ions to form dark, unattractive pigment/metal compounds that
stain the containers and the berries.Preparing This Food
Rinse the berries under cool running water, then drain them and pick them over carefully to
remove all stems, leaves, and hard (immature) or soft (over-ripe) berries.What Happens When You Cook This Food
Cooking destroys some of the vitamin C in fresh blueberries and lets water-soluble B vitamins
leach out. Cooked berries are likely to be mushy because heat dissolves the pectin inside.
Blueberries may also change color when cooked. The berries are colored with blue
anthocyanin pigments. Ordinarily, anthocyanin-pigmented fruits and vegetables turn red-
dish in acids (lemon juice, vinegar) and deeper blue in bases (baking soda). But blueberries
also contain yellow pigments (anthoxanthins). In a basic (alkaline) environments, as in a
batter with too much baking soda, the yellow and blue pigments will combine, turning the
blueberries greenish blue. Adding lemon juice to a blueberry pie stabilizes these pigments; it
is a practical way to keep the berries a deep, dark reddish blue.How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Canning and freezing. The intense heat used in canning the fruit or in blanching it before
freezing reduces the vitamin C content of blueberries by half.Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Anticancer activity. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wild blueberries rank
first among all fruits in antioxidant content; cultivated blueberries (the ones sold in most
food markets) rank second. Antioxidants are natural chemicals that inactivate free radicals,