Bioactive Vitamin C Content from Natural Selected Fruit Juices

Abstract

The content of vitamin C in fruit juices can be lowered by alterations in storage and temperature. This study compared storage circumstances (temperature, duration, and packaging type) to determine which variable had the biggest influence on changes in the vitamin C content of juices (grapefruit, mandarin, peach, apple, pear, plum). Fruit juices held in glass (plastic) containers at 4 °C saw vitamin C losses in the range of 0.0–10.9% (2.4–17.4%) in 24 h, 1.4–22.6% (5.2–25.3%) in 48 h, and 2.8–37.0% (6.0–39.0%) in three days. By raising the storage temperature to 23 °C, vitamin C losses in glass (plastic) containers were found to be 1.4–19.1% (5.2–22.2%), 2.8–20.9% (5.9–25.9%), and 4.5–43.5% (6.0–38.7%) of the value after 24 h, 48 h, and three days, respectively. When decreasing the temperature to −18 °C in fruit juices stored in glass (plastic) containers, there were losses of vitamin C in 24 h in the range of 1.5–19.6% (3.0–20.0%), in 48 h, 4.5–26.1% (4.5–26.1%), and in three days, 6.0–43.1% (5.8–43.5%) of the value. The effect of temperature on vitamin C concentration has been proven. Fruit juice’s vitamin C is more stable when kept in glass containers as opposed to plastic ones, which have a limited shelf life.

Keywords

• ascorbic acid
• temperature
• storage
• packaging material
• degradation
• refrigerated juice