Packaged flavor enhanced fruits or vegetables products with extended shelf-life for mass market distribution and consumption

摘要

Methods of enhancing the flavor of fruits or vegetables within its own product packaging to extend the shelf-life and allow for mass production and mass distribution of the flavor enhanced fruits or vegetables, and the packaged flavor enhanced fruits or vegetables products produced by such methods. The methods comprise providing product packaging capable of retaining a positive pressure of CO₂, receiving fruits or vegetables into the product packaging, introducing CO₂ into the product packaging, and sealing the product packaging containing the fruits or vegetables and CO₂, and wherein the product packaging retains a positive pressure of CO₂, and the fruits or vegetables absorb the CO₂ thereby enhancing the flavor of the fruits or vegetables within the product packaging. In one embodiment, the methods comprise freezing the carbonated packaged fruits or vegetables thereby trapping the flavor enhancing CO₂ within the fruits or vegetables to produce a frozen carbonated fruits or vegetables product. In one embodiment, the fruits or vegetables received into the product packaging may be pureed to a consistency suitable for consumption as a smoothy or similar beverage product.