Which O.J. Should You Buy?

How orange juice processing

affects the rate of vitamin C loss.

Background Information
Vitamin C is an organic molecule known as
ascorbic acid.
Ascorbic acid reacts chemically with
indophenol, an indigo indicator, resulting in
the bleaching of the dark color.
Relative concentration of ascorbic acid is
determined by counting the number of
drops of solution required for bleaching.

More breakdown
Ascorbic acid breaks down in the process of
oxygen in an oxidation reaction.
Enzymes present in citrus fruits increase the
rate of oxidation.
During juice processing, loss of A.A.
potency due to enzymes is minimal because:
A deaeration step minimizes amount of oxygen.
High pasteurization temperatures readily
destroy the enzymes oxidative properties.

Just a little more

In flash pasteurization, juices are
heated briefly and then rapidly cooled.
Vitamin C is a sensitive molecule that
is altered in the presence of heat.
Tin competes with ascorbic acid for
oxygen and tin is preferentially
oxidized.

Initial Scientific Model

of Vitamin C Depletion

[VitaminC]

time
oxygen

[VitaminC]
decrease

Ascorbicacidbreaksdownovertimewhen
exposedtooxygen..

Assumptions
Initial differences in ascorbic acid concentration in
juice did not affect the rate of breakdown.
Storing juice in plastic containers would remove the
container variable on rate of ascorbic acid depletion.
Flash pasteurized juices are exposed to less heat than
juices which experience standard pasteurization.
All juices tested did not have fructose added:
Ascorbic acid reacts with carbonyl group of fructose to
decrease ascorbic acid concentration.

Methods
I acquired four different types of Orange Juice:
Pasteurized Juice stored in a tin Container
Western Family Orange Juice
Pasteurized Juice never stored in tin
Western Family Orange Juice
Flash Pasteurized
Odwalla Orange Juice
Fresh Squeezed (non-pasteurized)
California Navel Oranges

Then
I collected juice from
6 California Navel
oranges and stored it
in a plastic juice
bottle.

I stored some orange

juice from a tin can in
a plastic juice bottle
the remaining juice
was left in the tin
container for
additional testing.

Finally
I used a 60 mg/L solution
of indophenol.
Set up two equal vials of
water and indicator (10
ml).
Titrated O.J. to solutions
using an eye-dropper until
colors were the same.
Recorded the number of
drops.

Results

Number of Drops of
Indophenol

Relative Ascorbic Acid Concentrations in a Variety

of Orange Juices

20
WF (tin)
Odwalla
WF Plastic
Tin
Fresh

15
10
5
0
0

4
Time (days)

Ascorbic Acid Loss

Approximate indicator drop increase per day
Fresh Squeezed Juice
W.F. (tin)
W.F. (packaged in tin
but stored in plastic)
Odwalla
W.F. (plastic)

0 drops/day
0.14 drops/day
0.29 drops/day
0.43 drops/day
0.71 drops/day

Connections
Claim 1: Juice exposed to tin will lose
ascorbic acid at a slower rate
than juice not exposed to tin.
Support: According to the data table, all
pasteurized juice that had been
exposed to tin lost ascorbic acid
at a slower rate. Of the juice
originally packaged in tin, the juice
stored in tin lost ascorbic acid more
slowly.
Refute: Fresh juice did not loose ascorbic
acid, and therefore was better at
retaining ascorbic acid than juice exposed
to tin.

Connections Continued
Claim 2: Juices exposed to higher
temperatures will loose ascorbic
acid more gradually than juices
exposed to less heat due to the
inactivation of enzymes that degrade
ascorbic acid.
Refute: When comparing juices never
stored in tin, ascorbic acid loss was
inversely proportional to heat time
exposure: the greater the heat, the
more rapid the loss.

Revised Model
enzymes
oxygen
[VitaminC]

time
heat

oxygen
tin

Oxidationof
VitaminC
Decreased
[VitaminC]

Oxidationof
Tin

So that got me wondering

What would happen if the
juice containers were
not capped, but rather
exposed to the oxygen
of the refrigerator?
What would happen if
fructose was added to
the fresh squeezed
juice?