Quality of orange juice in barrier packaging material

The vitamin C content and the colour of orange juice made from concentrate were measured during 9 months of storage at 20 degrees C either under artificial light or in darkness. The packaging materials used were glass, standard monolayer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and multilayer PET (PET/nylon and oxygen scavenger/PET) containers. In this experiment, all bottles were sealed with aluminium foil in order to avoid any cap effect. The results showed that in plastic packaging materials, the loss of vitamin C was related to the oxygen permeability, and that glass provided the best preservation of ascorbic acid. No statistical difference (p < 0.05) was revealed between the vitamin C content in the juice stored under artificial light or in darkness, whatever the packaging used. The modification Of colour was studied with the L, a* and b* values during storage at 20 degrees C under artificial light. L and b* decreased, revealing a reduction of lightness and yellow colour of the juice, whereas a* increased, due to the formation of brown pigments. This change in colour was partly related to the oxygen permeability of the packaging used. The losses of aroma compounds by permeation through the bottle (PET) and the cap (high-density polyethylene, HDPE) have also been investigated. The results showed that permeation mainly took place through the cap. The use of a multilayer cap [HDPE with internal barrier layer of low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/EvOH/ LDPE] considerably limited the permeation of the aroma compounds studied, whatever the PET bottle used. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.