How to blanch food in the vitalizer ?

By blanching food you inhibit the enzymes which destroy vitamins at very low temperatures. This method of cooking also removes the bitterness of some vegetables and aids digestion. Blanching is used to remove excessive starch as well as to cleanse, eliminate fat, desalinate and firm up the pieces. Soft-steam blanching in the Vitalizer ensures you blanch without losing any mineral or vitamin goodness. Unlike boiling-water-blanching which can de-mineralize vegetables slightly. If you wish to freeze them, they will keep for longer and their nutritive elements will not be destroyed.

So, how do you blanch food?

You should generally chop them into small pieces so that blanching is highly-effective. If you leave them whole, blanching will only take place on the surface and the enzymes will continue to degrade your food. The more fragile a vegetable, such as leafy vegetables, the less blanching time required: around one to two minutes. For peas and beans, as their fibre is harder, they can be blanched for three to five minutes based on product thickness. You should then quickly remove them from the steamer and place them in a cold recipient. With the Vitalizer, you won't need to immerse them in ice. However, you can do if you so wish.

Can the Vitalizer be used for sterilizing?

Yes... and no. It is worth knowing that bacteria stop developing as of 65°C and from 72°C all dangerous bacteria are destroyed. These include staphylococci, streptococci, Enterococci, tubercle bacilli as well as salmonella. Around 37°C dangerous bacteria develop very quickly: they can double their population every 20 minutes! This is why we keep food in cold places, fridges, etc. Viruses are tiny non-cellular particles, thus non-living. They need bacteria to multiply and they cannot survive for a long time outside the human body. High-temperature sterilization is, therefore, not required. If you wish to eliminate viruses and toxic bacteria from baby bottles, you may do so by steaming.

However, if you wish to sterilize, for example, to put jam in jars or vegetables in large jars... it's better to place them in a pressure cooker at over 120°C to eliminate all traces of pathogenic bacteria. Even with boiling water at 100°C, you won't be able to destroy certain aerobic and anaerobic bacilli such as clostridia. They have a resistance mechanism known as sporulation which is only comes into play in conditions where there are substantial nutrient deficiencies which hinder any metabolism. As such, it is extremely rare and requires a certain amount of time before the spores develop. If you sterilize baby bottles for 10 min in the Vitalizer and you use them within 2 days, there is no cause for concern whatsoever.