The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits and Vegetables During Thermal Processing
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits and Vegetables During Thermal Processing
Abstract
Vitamin C is one of the most important phytochemicals and can be found
in almost all fruits and vegetables. Since it covers almost all eventualities,
being water solute and prone to leaching from cells, thermally labile (one
of the most labile vitamins), pH-, metal ion-, light-sensitive, as well as
readily oxidizable by ascorbic acid oxidase, vitamin C is selected as the
most frequently measured nutrient to evaluate the nutrients loss during
thermal processing. It is generally accepted that if vitamin C is well
preserved, the other nutrients are also well retained. Higher retention of
vitamin C in processed products is highly desired. Herein this chapter
reviews the degradation mechanism and kinetics of vitamin C of fruits
and vegetables during thermal processing, such as blanching, drying,
cooking and frying. It starts with an overview of the functions of vitamin
C in human’s health. Then the current status for understanding of the
degradation kinetics of vitamin C during thermal processing was outlined,
followed by the discussion of its degradation mechanism. At last, potential
strategies or alternatives to keep vitamin C are identified and discussed.
1. Introduction
As one of the most important phytochemicals, vitamin C (ascorbic acid, AA) is
absolutely required in the human diet since humans lack gluconolactone oxidase
enzyme and cannot synthesize vitamin C and entirely rely on dietary sources
(Bai et al., 2013). The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin C
absorption are 75 mg/day, 90 mg/day, 45 mg/day for adult women, adult men,
276 Drying Technologies for Foods
and children 9-13 years old, respectively (Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of
Medicine, 2000). Vegetables and fruits are the major source of natural vitamin
C and is present in reduced (L-ascorbic acid, AsA) and oxidized
(L-dehydroascorbic acid monomer, DHA) form. Both AsA and DHA exhibit
vitamin C activity and the AsA could transform into DHA by enzymatic and
nonezymatic oxidation during processing and storage (Martí et al., 2009;
Wechtersbach et al., 2011). Vitamin C is a cofactor for several enzyme
catalyzed reactions including the hydroxylation of proline and lysine, and is
closely related to variety of disease, such as inhibition of formation of cancer-
causing N-nitroso compounds in the stomach (Sun et al., 2002; Ness and Poeles,
1997; Sesso et al., 2008; Ashor et al., 2014). Vitamin C is also essential for the
synthesis of collagen, radical scavenger activity and NO-sparing function and
has been widely applied in the cosmetic industry (Phillips et al., 2016). With so
many important roles, the retention of vitamin C in products has been regarded
as a reliable and representative index during their processing (Giannakourou
and Taoukis, 2003; Xiao et al., 2014).
Thermal processing is frequently used for vegetables and fruits preservation
processes, such as blanching, drying, and cooking etc. However, vitamin C can
be easily degraded and very sensitive to various external factors, especially
high temperature, oxygen, light (Leong and Oey, 2012; Phillips et al., 2016).
Thus, many researchers have focused on different processing methods and
optimize processing conditions to develop the best processing technology and
maximum vitamin C retention. The elucidation of the degradation mechanism
of vitamin C under different processing techniques for different kinds of materials
would be very useful for better control of the processing parameters so as to
enhance vitamin C retention. Furthermore, understanding the degradation kinetics
and various kinetic models is essential to predict vitamin C loss and quality
change under a certain processing condition.
A systematic review of the degradation of vitamin C during thermal processing
is necessary. The current chapter is to summarize the influences of different
thermal processing techniques including drying, blanching, cooking and frying
on vitamin C degradation and their kinetics. Moreover, alternate strategies to
reduce vitamin C degradation during thermal processing of vegetables and fruits
are identified and discussed.
2. Vitamin C
In 1911, Polish biochemist Kazimierz Funk fed a group of ill pigeons with a
substance isolated from rice husks, and 12 h later, these ill pigeons recovered.
Moreover, he found that many diseases such as beriberi, rickets, and scurvy
arose due to lack of some substances like the one he found in the rice polishing.
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits 277
Kazimierz Funk considered these chemicals vital amines, which he shortened
to “vitamins” (Moyer, 2014). The Hungarian American physiologist Albert Szent-
Gyorgyi won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for isolating vitamin
C and discovering the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle (Kyle
and Shampo, 2000). Furthermore, there are at least 11 scientists who won the
Nobel Prize owing to discovery of various vitamins, synthesis and determination
of chemical structure (shown as Table 1).
Ascorbic acid has four isomers but only the L-ascorbic and araboascorbic (or
erythorbic) acids have physiological activity as vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is a
white crystalline and odorless substance. Due to its polar characteristics, it is
easily soluble in water and its solubility in nonaqueous media, such as ethanol
and acetonitrile, is quite limited. The crystalline and pure ascorbic acid is stable
when exposed to air, light, and ambient temperature for a long period (Santos
and Silva, 2008). However, in aqueous solutions or in foods, its stability is related
to the storage conditions and to the composition of the matrix (Santos and Silva,
2008; Phillips et al., 2016).
Vitamin C is essential for life as a powerful water soluble antioxidant which
found mainly in fruits and vegetables. This nutrient not only prevents diseases
like scurvy but also plays an important role for human’s health benefits for its
antioxidant effect and stimulating the immune system (Padayatty et al., 2003;
Cruz et al., 2008; Santos and Silva, 2008; Peleg et al., 2016). Vitamin C is
taken up by cells through sodium-dependent vitamin C transporters, whereas
the oxidized form of vitamin C, dehydroascorbate (DHA), moves into cells via
glucose transporters (Reczek and Chandel, 2015). From a functional point of
view, vitamin C in combination with other antioxidants, including vitamin E,
-carotene, and selenium, provides a synergistic antihypertensive effect
(Houston, 2005).
In general, the quality of a foodstuff is determined by its contents of vitamins,
minerals and calorific values that can be affected by processing conditions and
moisture contents. Some vitamins are quite important in human health. Vitamins
A, C and E have a protective effect against lung, bladder and prostate cancers
(Halliwell, 1994). Many animal species are able to synthesize vitamin C, but
humans are not. Humans have no capability to manufacture the enzyme
L-gulolactone oxidase, which is responsible for the synthesis (Santos and Silva,
2008). Vitamins are organic compounds which must be taken into the body and
they are cofactors for many enzymes. Moreover, vitamins A, E and C have
antioxidant roles against oxidative damage (Stryer, 1995). Because of their
antioxidant properties, ascorbic acid, carotenoids, and vitamin E are currently
the object of much attention due to possible links to prevention of certain types
of cancer (Krinsky, 1989; Ziegler, 1989; Kamiloglu et al., 2016), cardiovascular
Table 1: Vitamins and Nobel Prize
278
(Contd.)
Name Country Prize motivation Master works The Nobel Year
Prize (field)
laureates/1964/press.html
279
280 Drying Technologies for Foods
disease (Kritchevaky, 1992), atherosclerosis (Mezzetti et al., 1995), and delay
of the aging process (Packer, 1996). Even the two-time Nobel Prize winner
chemist Linus Pauling found that cancer patients given high dose of vitamin C
(10 g/day) had an increase rate of survival and proposed high doses of vitamin
C as a cancer therapeutic (Cameron and Pauling, 1976). High doses of vitamin
C can increase the amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cancer cells
and exert antitumorigenic activity (Chen et al., 2008). Recently, Yun et al.
(2015) found that high dose of vitamin C selectively kill colorectal cancer cells
carrying activating mutations and provided a mechanistic rationale for how
vitamin C selectively kills cancer cells.
Fig. 1: The degradation mechanisms of vitamin C and main influencing factors
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits 281
the ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid under aerobic conditions,
followed by hydrolysis and further oxidation (Gregory, 1996). The degradation
mechanisms of vitamin C and the main influencing factors are shown in Fig 1.
3.1 Effect of pH
The pH influences not only ascorbic acid accumulation during plants’ growth
but also the stability during post-harvest storage. It is well known that low pH
could enhance the stability of vitamin C, especially for DHAA. On the other
hand, acid such as hydroxyl acid, citric and malic can dissociate a large number
of hydrogen ions (H+) which in turn stabilize vitamin C by chelating prooxidant
metals. On the other hand, low pH inactivate enzymes (such as ascorbic acid
oxidase, ascorbic acid peroxidases) can hinder the degradation of vitamin C.
Munyaka et al. (2010) studied the impact of acidification (pH 4.3 and 6.5) on
ascorbic acid stability in broccoli, and observed that lower pH could increase
the stability of ascorbic acid and DHAA. Hou et al. (2015) reported that with
the increase of pH, total ascorbic acid content in tomato leaves decreased and
redox status (AA/DHA) was augmented. Similarly, most of the biosynthetic
gene expression level decreased with the increment of pH and showed the
negative correlation.
min) pasteurization and high temperature short time (HTST, 72-75 oC 20 s or
82-85 oC, 15 s) pasteurization (Chavan et al., 2016). During hot air drying at
40, 50, 60, and 70 oC), the highest ascorbic acid degradation of papaya at the
lowest temperature (40 oC) was found by Kurozawa et al. (2014), who attributed
this phenomenon to the longest drying time. Similar findings have also been
reported by Marfil et al. (2008), Kaya et al. (2010), and Mrad et al. (2012).
Irradiation at 75-100 Gy commonly used in inhibiting sprouting of potatoes during
storage, a higher loss of vitamin C was found in potato irradiated for sprout
control than non-irradiated tubers during storage by Joshi et al., (1990).
However, during strawberries refrigeration storage pretreated with doses of 2-
3 kGy, significant increase in ascorbic acid was found (Graham and Stevenson,
1997). It has been observed that the higher the irradiation dose, the higher the
vitamin C degradation in dried samples (Wang and Chao, 2003 & 2004). The
negative effect of irradiation on vitamin C retention probably due to irradiation
damages the microstructure of products and increase the molecules flow cross
cells, so that the oxidation of vitamin C becomes more easily. In addition, the
reduction effect of irradiation pretreatment on vitamin C retention probably due
to the oxidative stress injuries caused by irradiation (Vanamala et al., 2005).
The main objective of sulphite pretreatment is to reduce non-enzymatic browning,
while sometimes it can preserve vitamin C content, or even enhancing drying
rate. It was observed that the vitamin C content of dried fenugreek leaves
increased significantly compared to no-pretreated products (Bajaj et al., 1993).
Ultrasound treatment has been recognized as a promising processing alternative
to conventional thermal treatment in the food industry. Power ultrasound has
been reported to be effective against foodborne pathogens in various beverages
(Valero et al., 2007; Cheng et al., 2007; D’amico et al., 2006). The degradation
of vitamin C during sonication may result from the extreme physical conditions
which occur within the bubbles during cavitational collapse at micro-scale and
several sonochemical reactions occurring simultaneously or in isolation (Suslick,
1988; Tiwari et al., 2009 a and b.). High pressure technology has also been
widely used in food processing, which is regarded as a promising method for
quality reservation especially as a pretreatment for food processing. Recently,
Tewari et al. (2016) summarized the preservation effect of high pressure
processing on ascorbic acid of fruits and vegetables in detail.
Besides, the presence of sugars (Hsu et al., 2012), amino acids (Mercali et al.,
2014) or microorganisms (Soares and Hotchkiss, 1999) also effect the vitamin
C content during thermal processing.
Hart, 1994). For ascorbic acid degradation of most materials during thermal and
storage, first-order kinetic model showed a good fit and has been applied by
numerous researchers (Burdurlu et al., 2006; Frýas and Oliveira, 2001; Uddin et
al., 2002; Zheng and Lu, 2011; Blasco et al., 2004). Besides, zero-order model,
Weibull distribution kinetic model, PLSR model and artificial neural networks
(ANNs) have been also applied in ascorbic acid degradation of various materials
during thermal treatments and storage (Lin et al., 2016; Zheng and Lu, 2011).
4.1 Blanching
Blanching is an essential thermal treatment carried out prior to many preservation
processes such as drying, canning, freezing, and largely determines the product
quality (Xiao et al., 2014). The main objectives of blanching are: 1) to inactivate
the enzymes (such as POD and PPO) to prevent possible deterioration reactions,
off-flavors and undesirable changes in color (Wang et al., 2017a and b; Nurhuda
et al., 2013); 2) to reduce microbial load to prolong shelf-life (Afoakwa, et al.,
2013); 3) to eliminate air in the intracellular space to increase the rate of heat
and mass transfer and prevent oxidation (Ruiz-Ojeda and Peñas, 2013); and 4)
to soften tissues to obtain products with specific texture (Xiao et al., 2014).
Additionally, proper blanching can develop superficial on the material while can
enhance moisture evaporation in drying (Al-Khuseibi et al., 2005). However,
most blanching methods belong to thermal treatment, such as water blanching,
steam blanching, as well as microwave and infrared blanching, which may
results in the degradation of ascorbic acid with high temperature. Therefore, to
balance between the blanching conditions and quality a better understanding of
ascorbic acid loss kinetics is important.
Zheng and Lu (2011) employed a first-order kinetic model to describe the
ascorbic acid content in bud, upper, middle and butt segments of hot water (70,
80, and 90 oC) blanched asparagus samples, and the results showed a good fit
for all treatments. Bai et al. (2013) used zero-order model, first-order model
and first-order fraction model to describe the vitamin C degradation of Fuji
apple during high humidity air impingement blanching (HHAIB) and the results
indicated that first-order model could fitted well the experimental data under all
processing conditions with the Ea value of 26.69 kJ/mol. Castro et al. (2004)
also found that the ascorbic acid degradation followed first-order kinetics for
both pasteurization and ohmic heating treatments. During watercress blanching
with both thermal and thermosonication, Cruz et al. (2008) found the first-order
reaction kinetics adequately described the ascorbic acid degradation for both
blanching processes. Besides, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were also
developed to predict the loss of ascorbic acid in different segments of asparagus
during water blanching at temperatures ranging from 65 to 95 oC as a function
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits 287
of blanching time and temperature (Lu et al., 2010). The predicted values of
the correlation coefficients between experimental and ANNs ranged from 0.8166
to 0.9868, which indicated that ANNs could be potential tools for the prediction
of nutrient losses in vegetables during thermal treatments.
4.2 Drying
Drying is one of the most commonly used technologies to prevent deterioration
and prolong the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables. Several drying methods have
been applied to fruits and vegetables, such as air-, freeze-, microwave- and
sun-drying etc. Different drying methods have a significant effect on nutritional
and sensorial attributes (Marfil et al., 2008).
Temperature is the most important factor during drying and many researches
explored the relationship between vitamin C retention and temperatures and
the degradation kinetics. Kuljarachanan et al. (2009) studied the degradation
of vitamin C in lime residues during drying at 60-120 oC and found that vitamin
C decreased exponentially with the drying time. For drying at 100 and 120 oC,
sharp reduction was observed and vitamin C content was not detected after
drying for 1.5 h. In general, most vitamin C was destroyed during drying; only
12 and 15 mg/100g (dry basis) of vitamin C was left in lime residues after
drying at 60 and 80 oC for 10 and 6 h, respectively. This work also reported that
vitamin C decreased as the product temperature increased and moisture content
decreased. The degradation might be from both vitamin C oxidation and thermal
destruction. Marfil et al. (2008) studied ascorbic acid degradation kinetics in
tomatoes at different drying conditions. It was reported that the degradation
rates were dependent on samples treatment before drying, as well as on drying
temperature. Lower degradation rates were observed in osmotically pre-treated
whole tomatoes, whereas higher degradation rates occurred in halved tomatoes.
Increasing drying temperature led to higher degradation rates.
Except drying temperature, the material thickness, relative humidity and drying
time also influenced the ascorbic acid content. In terms of sample thickness, it
is a common sense that the thicker thickness the dried products, the longer
drying time and the lower vitamin C retention rate. For example, Adam et al.
(2000) explored the effect of sample thickness on vitamin C retention of onion
and found that the higher thickness resulted in lower vitamin C retention as the
exposure time to the hot air was prolonged. However, the effect of sample
thickness on vitamin C retention is indirect. If the drying time of products with
different thicknesses is the same, the vitamin C retention will be the same. It
was observed that slice thickness did not influence vitamin C contents in dried
okra with different thickness (5, 10, 15 mm) after 96 h solar drying (Adom
et al., 1997).
288 Drying Technologies for Foods
The effects of relative humidity on vitamin C retention is complex. As increasing
relative humidity is likely results to increasing drying time, which has negative
on vitamin C retention. On the other hand, increasing relative humidity can cut
the odds of oxidation reactions, which has positive effect for vitamin C retention.
Sigge et al. (1999) explored the effect of different relative humidity conditions
on vitamin C retention of peppers. It was found that when the drying
temperature was low, such as at 55 and 60 oC, the effect of the relative humidity
on vitamin C retention was not significant. While, at higher temperatures such
as 65, 70, and 75 oC, higher relative humidity caused a lower retention of the
vitamin C.
Vitamin C retention is negatively correlated with the processing time and the
longer the processing time the lower the retention. Santos and Silva (2008)
used ethanol to modify the drying atmosphere and it was found that the shorter
drying time obtained under this modified atmosphere led to the vitamin C retention
was nearly 8% higher than the samples dried under normal atmosphere. It
should be noted that when drying processes are performed at very low
temperature or/and in modified atmosphere, the drying time is not a critical
factor. For example, the vitamin C retention of tomatoes dried for 24 h in freeze
drying conditions was as high as 90%, while the retention of the samples dried
for 8 h in hot air was lower than 50% (Chang et al., 2006). Similarly, it was
observed that the vitamin C retention in Indian gooseberry dried in low-pressure
superheated steam drying was higher than the products dried in hot air, although
the drying time of the former was longer than the latter (Kongsoontornkijkul et
al., 2006).
The mathematical model as a tool has been widely applied to predict vitamin C
content of various materials during drying. For example, Gamboa-Santos et al.
(2014) found that first-order reaction model well described the experimental
data of convective drying of strawberries at 40-70 oC with R2 values in the
range of 0.972-0.993. Similarly, in the previous reports first-order reaction model
also been used to fit drying data of potatoes (air drying of 30, 40, and 60 oC;
microwave of 10.5, 15.0, and 38.0 W) and tomato (air drying of 50, 60, 70, 80,
and 90 oC) and R2 values for potatoes air drying, microwave drying and tomato
air drying were in the range of 0.907-0.993, 0.826-0.869, and 0.966-0.998,
respectively (Khraisheh et al., 2004; Goula and Adamopoulos, 2006).
4.3 Cooking
Steaming, boiling, stir-frying, frying, roasting, microwaving, pressure-cooking,
and combined use of microwaves and pressure are the common household
cooking methods around the world. As a thermal processing, cooking often
contributed to the greatest vitamin C loss, and the extent of the loss depends
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits 289
upon variations in cooking methods and duration (Francisco et al., 2010).
Generally, vegetables prepared by microwave-steaming and stir-frying with oil
had significantly higher (1.3-1.8 fold) vitamin C retention than boiling (Lee and
Kader, 2000). Galgano et al. (2007) observed that the vitamin C retention of
broccoli samples after boiling and steam cooking was only 34% and 22%,
respectively. However, for broccoli, a few controversial conclusions on vitamin
C loss during different cooking methods are available in the scientific literature.
Vallejo et al. (2002) found that microwave and boiling cooking methods obtained
higher vitamin C loss than steam cooking, while Zhang et al. (2004) reported
both microwave and boiling cooking caused more than 60% reduction of vitamin
C.
Thirteen vegetables including green bean, pea, brussels sprout, leek (slices),
broccoli, zucchini (slices), spinach branch, hashed spinach, yellow French bean,
cauliflower, mushroom, carrot (slices), and salsify were studied by Bureau et
al. (2015) using boiling in water, steaming, pressure, and microwave cooking
and the results showed that boiling involved a higher loss of total ascorbic acid
(average of -51% on fresh matter) than other methods. Barros et al. (2011)
reported a significant decrease in vitamin C for sweet chestnuts after both
boiling (25-54%) and roast cooking (2-77%). Effect of various cooking methods
including boiling (vacuum and conventional), steaming, pressure cooking, sous
vide, microwave (sous vide and conventional), deep-frying (vacuum and
conventional) and grilling on vitamin C content of kailan-hybrid broccoli was
studied by Martínez-Hernández et al. (2013). The result showed that vacuum
and conventional boiling had the lowest and the highest losses with 27% and
62%, respectively.
4.4 Storage
Nutritional quality of food during storage has become increasingly important
for consumers. The quality changes depend on storage conditions (such as
temperature, illumination, oxygen) and composition of food. Therefore, to
understand the behavior of ascorbic acid which is the index of the most easy to
degradation composition during storage by accurate mathematical model is
essential.
Generally, vitamin C presents a gradual decreasing trend in fruits and vegetables
with the increased storage temperature or duration. Minimum loss of AA during
storage has been reported in cruciferous vegetables, and this is due to high total
sulfur and glutathione in them. Glutathione may be involved in the mechanism
responsible for reduction of DHA to AA in crucifers (Albrecht et al., 1990;
Klimczak et al., 2007; Kalt et al., 1999). Vitamin C loss is closely related to
duration and temperature of storage and first-order model, zero-order model,
Table 2: Ascorbic acid degradation kinetics of materials during storage.
290
temperature profiles.
Dried guava Temperature: 30, 40, 50 oC; Pseudo-first-order 1) The degradation of ascorbic acid Uddin et al. (2002)
Water activity (aw): follows a pseudo-first-order reaction;
0.43, 0.75, 0.84, 0.79 2) The Ea of ascorbic acid degradation
is found to be the range
3.4-11.0 kcal/mol;
3) The deterioration of vitamin C
increased with the increase of
water activity and temperature;
4) Empirical equations to predict
shelf life in respect of vitamin
C retention were developed.
Pineapple juices Samples were stored in a Zero-order, first- 1) Increasing the temperature increased Zheng and Lu
temperature-controlled order, the k of kinetic model; (2011)
storage locker at 5, 15, Weibull distribution 2) The best prediction models were
25, 35, and 45 oC in model, partial least achieved using first-order kinetic model
the dark squares regression for vitamin C, zero-order and
(PLSR) model first-order kinetic model for total
(Contd.)
Product Treatment Kinetic Model Main results Reference
phenol, and first-order kinetic and
Weibull model for DPPH radical
scavenging activity
Food system including Water activity: 0.69-0.90; Zero-order 1) The degradation of vitamin C in each Laing et al. (1978)
soy flour (40%), ground Temperature: 61-105 oC case followed a zero order kinetic model;
beef (25%), sucrose (20%), 2) Vitamin C degradation rate ranged from
propylene glycol (10%), 1.5-10.5 mg/100g solids/min, activation
and lard (5%) energy range of 14-17 kcal/mol.
Orange, grape and Storage at 20, 30, and Zero-order and 1) The degradation of vitamin C fitted Özkan et al. (2004)
pomegranate juices, 40 oC with or without first-order model better to a zero-order model than a
and sour cherry nectar hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) first-order model;
2) H2O2 concentration have a significant
impact on vitamin C degradation.
Orange, lemon, grapefruit, Storage at 28, 37 and First-order kinetic 1) The loss of ascorbic acid at each Burdurlu et al.
and tangerine juice 45 oC for 8 weeks model temperature followed a first-kinetic (2006)
model;
2) Ea was determined in the range of
12.77±0.97-25.39±1.98 kcal/mol;
3) Vitamin C retention after storage at
28, 37, and 45 oC was about
54.5-83.7%, 23.6-27%, and
15.1-20.0%, respectively;
4) Significant correlation was obtained
between hyddroxymethylfurfural
and ascorbic acid loss at all storage
temperatures in all citrus juice
concentrates.
Nectar of Cupuacu Thermal temperatures: First order model 1) A reversible first order model and Vieira et al. (2000)
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits
(Contd.)
292
2) Dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA)
contents were kept constant during
frozen storage.
Fresh-cut strawberries Stored at high-oxygen Zero-order model, 1) The first-order model adequately fitted Odriozola- Serrano
atmospheres (80 kPa O2); first-order model, (R2adj–-0.982) the variation of vitamin C; et al. (2009)
Temperature: 5 to 20 oC and Weibull 2) The Tc obtained for vitamin
distribution model C was 284 K.
Sonicated orange juice Samples were treated with First-order model 1) First-order kinetics well described Tiwari et al. (2009)
ultrasonic of acoustic and Weibull model the vitamin C content of sonicated
densities ranging from 0.30 samples;
to 0.81 W/ml and times of 2) During storage, the vitamin C loss of
2-10 min pre-storage, sonicated samples followed the Weibull
pasteurized samples was model, and first-order model fitted
thermally also investigated as control.
pasteurized and untreated samples;
3) Sonicated treatment enhanced shelf
life of orange juice (27 to 33 days)
compared to thermal processing
(19 days).
The Degradation Mechanism and Kinetics of Vitamin C in Fruits 293
Weibull model, and partial least squares regression (PLSR) model has been
employed to predict the vitamin C retention during storage (Table 2)
Conclusions
For thermal processing of fruits and vegetables, vitamin C degradation is both
dependant on internal (AAO, PPO and POD) and surroundings factors
(temperature, pH, light, oxygen, water activity, metallic catalysts etc.). Anyway,
vitamin C degradation can be concluded redox reactions, and it’s a complex
process due to the combine effect of various factors. Temperature is the most
important factor for vitamin C retention, generally, temperature and treated
time has a negative effect on the vitamin C retention. However, in some cases
increase in vitamin C content with thermal processing have been observed.
Different thermal processing methods viz., drying, blanching, cooking, and
sterilization have greatly influence on vitamin C retention. To obtain the maximum
vitamin C retention, many innovative technologies have been explored, such as
vacuum freeze-drying, high-humidity hot air impingement blanching, microwave
cooking, and cryopreservation etc. Mathematical modeling has been successfully
employed to predict vitamin C degradation under various processing and storage
conditions. First-order model has been widely studied for vitamin C degradation
and fitting experimental data well. Besides, zero-order model, Weibull distribution
kinetic model, PLSR model and artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been
also applied in ascorbic acid degradation of different materials during thermal
treatments and storage. With high-quality demand for processed food, smart-
measurement and determination of vitamin C degradation during processing
should be put priorities in the further research, and by thus to realize the online
optimization of the processing for vitamin C preservation.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development
Program of China (No. 2017YFD0400905); National Natural Science Foundation
of China (No. 31501548, 31772026 ), the Project in the National Science &
Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period
(2015BAD19B010201).
294 Drying Technologies for Foods
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