The breakdown of ascorbic acid at different temperatures and amounts of dissolved oxygen in orange juice

Abstract: Vitamin C is an essential water soluble vitamin found mainly in fruits, vegetables and their derivatives. Orange juice is a popular thirst quencher and a convenient way to reach the daily recommended intake of vitamin C. The aim of this thesis was to determine how the vitamin C content in orange juice is affected by storage temperature and oxygen content in the product. Bottles of orange juice were stored at different temperatures. Regular orange juice was compared to juice where dissolved oxygen in product water had been decreased before mixing the juice. One other aim was to determine the efficiency of a stress test room where a higher temperature was supposed to simulate longer storage time. The study showed a larger non-linear loss of vitamin C over time in the bottles stored at the higher temperatures. The samples with less dissolved oxygen showed a higher vitamin C content after five and six months of storage in room temperature. For a storage time up to one week the loss of vitamin C in the stress test does not appear to be equal to the corresponding storage time in room temperature.KeywordsOrange juice,