Why do green vegetables hold color after blanching and shocking?

• A. Chlorophyll retention and enzyme action stoppage preserve color.
• B. Color retention is due to high sugar content.
• C. Chlorophyll is unaffected by blanching.
• D. Color retention is independent of blanching.

Answer: (C)

Green color comes from chlorophyll, and blanching works best when it inactivates the enzymes that would break down chlorophyll while the pigment stays in its green form. A brief boil warms the vegetables just long enough to stop these enzymes from acting, then shocking in ice water halts the cooking process immediately. This combination prevents the pigment from turning other shades (like olive-brown from pheophytin) and helps keep that bright green look. So the key idea is that color is preserved by stopping enzyme activity and keeping chlorophyll intact through a quick, controlled blanch-and-shock process. The notion that sugar content or being completely unaffected by blanching explains green retention isn’t accurate, and color retention does depend on how blanching is done.