Abstract
Vitamin C, a water-soluble compound, is a natural antioxidant in many plant-based products, possessing important nutritional benefits for human health. During fruit and vegetable processing, this bioactive compound is prone to various modes of degradation, with temperature and oxygen being recognised as the main factors responsible for this nutritional loss. Consequently, Vitamin C is frequently used as an index of the overall quality deterioration of such products during processing and post-processing storage and handling. Traditional preservation methods, such as thermal processing, drying and freezing, are often linked to a substantial Vitamin C loss. As an alternative, novel techniques or a combination of various preservation steps (“hurdles”) have been extensively investigated in the recent literature aiming at maximising Vitamin C retention throughout the whole product lifecycle, from farm to fork. In such an integrated approach, it is important to separately study the effect of each preservation step and mathematically describe the impact of the prevailing factors on Vitamin C stability, so as to be able to optimise the processing/storage phase. In this context, alternative mathematical approaches have been applied, including more sophisticated ones that incorporate parameter uncertainties, with the ultimate goal of providing more realistic predictions.
Highlights
Looking at the mechanism of Vitamin C degradation, it is generally accepted that ascorbic acid (AA) reacts through two major paths, the most common one being in the presence of oxygen (“aerobic pathway”), which leads to the formation of dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA), which can follow different modes of degradation [11,12,13]
Being an essential nutritional element, the decrease of the Vitamin C concentration to levels unacceptable by the legislation or industrial practice often renders this compound a crucial indicator for product quality and, is used for determining the shelf life of foods such as juices, frozen foods and vegetables and dehydrated products of plant origin
These included the mainstream preservation methods based on thermal processing, low temperature and moisture reduction, as well as high-pressure processing, ultrasound, pulsed electric fields, cold plasma and pulsed light
Summary
Acknowledging the importance of vitamins for human health, the chemical mechanisms; the kinetics of their degradation and the main factors affecting their loss during postharvest handling, industrial processing, distribution and storage have been thoroughly investigated, and there is a large database for a variety of perishable food products [1]. There is abundant evidence (as will be described in this article) that Vitamin C is a sensitive, water-soluble compound considered to be prone to severe deterioration, especially during the conventional processing techniques (e.g., thermal treatment and drying), with extreme conditions leading to a rapid loss In this context, novel techniques or an appropriate combination of preservation steps have been investigated, so as to alleviate the negative effects of the most popular industrial methods. It is deemed necessary to establish appropriate kinetic equations, so as to mathematically describe the relationship between the nutritional quality and the prevailing factors, such as temperature, time, oxygen concentration and moisture content In this context, another topic addressed in this article is published kinetic models of AA degradation in foods and the main principles of kinetic analysis followed. To be able to implement and critically evaluate the pros and cons of each procedure, a representative case study is analysed based on the available published data [15,16,17]
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