Effect of Alternative Preservation Steps and Storage on Vitamin C Stability in Fruit and Vegetable Products: Critical Review and Kinetic Modelling Approaches

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 recognise...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Maria C. Giannakourou, Petros S. Taoukis
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: MDPI AG 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/4fd994e349604247a191361cd9ad688e
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario: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.