dc.description.abstract | Acerola fruit is known as ‘King of Vitamin C’ fruit. Recent studies also showed that
acerola fruits are rich in polyphenols which are natural antioxidants in plant world.
Natural antioxidants are labile components and they are sensitive to heat, oxygen,
light and other environmental factors. It was expected that concentrations of these
natural components decrease during processing and storage of acerola-derived
products. The objectives of this study are to develop a new gummy candy by using
natural acerola juice and to investigate the effects of temperatures, packaging
materials and packaging methods on the reduction rates of vitamin C and
polyphenols. The results revealed that storing acerola gummy at 4oC and 15oC
conserved better vitamin C and polyphenols than storing at room temperature.
Acerola gummy stored at 4oC, 15oC and RT had levels of vitamin C of 120 mg/100g,
127 mg/100g and 80 mg/100g, respectively, and polyphenols content of 702 mg
GAE/100g, 733 mg GAE/100g and 592 mg GAE/100g, respectively. Storage at the
lower temperatures also maintained better the color of the product. The experiment
with different packaging materials in combination with packaging methods (normal
packaging and vacuum packaging) brought out that aluminated polyethylene (PE)
either combined with normal or vacuum packaging seemed to preserve the
antioxidants better (no light passage to the product with this packaging material)
compared with PA (polyamide) packages. In conclusion, using aluminated PE
packaging under vacuum condition as well as storing acerola gummy at 15oC or 4oC
would maintain better the amounts of vitamin C and polyphenols.
Key words: Vitamin C, polyphenols, acerola gummy candy. | en_US |