Food Chemistry Composition & Analysis Assignment Sample
Process Optimization Novel Processing Method To Increase Vitamin C Retention
Abstract
The discussions in the report are associated with the conduction of a test focusing on the application of High Pressure Processing (HPP) on fruits and vegetables. The test had aimed to measure the percentage loss of Vitamin C during the process. The test was needed to be conducted to identify an effective novel method for preventing the loss of Vitamin C while processing foods. From the application of traditional processing methods such as the thermal process technique, it has been found that the level of Vitamin C loss is high. Vitamin C is an important component required to support different enzyme-based reactions in the human body. The human body cannot produce Vitamin C, so it needs to be obtained from other dietary sources. Food processing is done to increase the shelf life of foods.
Therefore, this process is also necessary be done to facilitate the storage of fruits and vegetables for a longer time period. Considering all these facts, the specific test on HPP had been conducted. For the test, oranges were taken and SPSS analysis through normality distribution and independent sampling was done. The results from the test reflected very small changes in the volume of Vitamin C in the fruit juice sample before and after the conduction of the HPP. This indicated that HPP is a suitable novel method that resulted in optimising food processing and lowering the chances of loss of Vitamin C after food processing.
Introduction
Vitamin C has been considered an essential phytochemical required by humans as they cannot produce this nutritional component. Humans completely need to rely on proper dietary sources to gain the required percentage of Vitamin C. Fruits and vegetables are the primary sources of Vitamin C, present in oxidised form (Wang et al. 2017). Vitamin C is required in the body as a cofactor for supporting various enzyme supported reactions. Thus, Vitamin C is an important element to be consumed by humans to ensure the system’s proper functioning. The systematic review by Wang et al. (2017) has provided a review of how processing can impact the retention of Vitamin C in different food items. Thermal processing has been identified to be the most commonly used technique of preserving fruits and vegetables. Some of the techniques used over the ages to preserve vegetables and fruits are blanching, cooking, drying and so on. However, it has been observed that Vitamin C is sensitive highly sensitive to external factors, including light, temperature and oxygen. All these facts reflect that Vitamin C is an essential part of the human diet. However, the commonly used thermal processing technique is negatively impacting the retention of Vitamin C levels in processed vegetables and fruits.
The arguments and facts provided by this study agree with the findings stated by Lee et al. (2018). According to Lee et al. (2018), the content of Vitamin C varies in different fruits and vegetables. Thus, the ineffective cooking or processing technique further reduces or eliminates Vitamin C from fruits and vegetables that do not have a high content of the nutritional element. The study analysed the impact of boiling, blanching, steaming, and microwaving techniques on the samples. The findings pointed out that prolonged exposure to temperature eliminates any Vitamin C content. Processes including boiling, steaming, and blanching have either reduced or eliminated Vitamin C from the food materials. Only microwaving has been found to have less impact Vitamin C content. It has been recommended that less use of water and exposure to temperature for a shorter time period helps in increasing the retention of Vitamin C.
A study by Galani et al. (2017) has stated that the processing and storing of fruits and vegetables at low temperatures reduce the level of Vitamin C. Some other factors have been identified to affect the retention of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables. Harvest time, post-harvest handling and species of the raw materials influence the degree of change of Vitamin C content in the vegetables and fruits. However, the level of Vitamin C degradation has been noticed in the case of cold processing. From this analysis, inferences can be established that temperatures have a significant impact on the retention of Vitamin C during processing. Temperature-specific processes reduce the Vitamin C content, which varies due to genetic arrangements, harvest techniques, and post-harvest handling.
High Pressure Processing (HPP) technique has been used during the test to identify the content of Vitamin C in sample materials. HPP is an advanced technique used to process fruits and vegetables where pressure is used instead of focusing on temperature. High pressure between 100 to 900 Mpa is applied to the food material to prevent the growth of any microorganism (Tewari et al. 2017). For measuring the intensity of the HPP test, the primary method has been applied. Orange was selected as the main component for conducting a test over it. This provides a great source of vitamin C, this is the reason a test has been conducted on taking orange as the main ingredient. The loss of vitamin C during the processing method could be gained succinctly. 3 sweet orange cultivators at a full maturity stage having similar pH levels; ripening index, soluble solids, and acidity were gathered from the orange farmstead in Spain. The sample size was 50 oranges. It was arranged in 10 sets, each set was containing 5 oranges. These were peeled, made uniform, and then filtered. It was filtered through a “2mm steel sieve” for producing a fresh, lump-free “orange juice sample”. After receiving sample juice, ascorbic acid was taken out from unprocessed samples and examined by utilizing the HPLC method. “The results came out as mg/100ml” where the HPLC method is defined as an essential method utilized for separating and quantifying “components of liquid samples”.
To understand the intensity of the loss of vitamin C in this method namely HPP, another method was applied with the same procedure to the cultivar samples. This time was 20 sets of oranges were taken and juiced with the same procedures such as peeling, homogenizing and filtering. However, the processing method is differentiated. Half of the sample was tested through thermal pasteurization. This was processed at 80 centigrade for 30 seconds. On the other hand, half of the orange juice was processed through the HPP process. This sample was processed at 200 MPa/25 degrees centigrade for 1 minute. As such these vitamins were taken out from processed samples thus analyzed by using a similar method.
Results
Before analyzing the vitamin C percentage in the sample size, it has been utilized for the same test and provide an authentic result from the test. 100 orange juices were extracted and analyzed in the process. For converting into the presentation this sample result was converted or analyzed into a normality test and independent-sample T-test. Thus data has been examined by using two tests and represented in statistical form.
Test for normality
For conducting the statistical representation of data two tests in the normality are considered. They are Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk. From the first test, the value of Cultivar is found to be in terms of statistics is .219, df 30 and significant value derive 0.001. For the same factor in the Sapiro-wik test, the statistic is derived .796, df 30, and significant value .000. In replicate condition, significant value is found to be .200 in the first test and in the second test 0.089. Lastly, for Vitamin C content-mg-per-100 factor significant value is found to be in the first test .000, and in the second test, it is the same .000. As per the principle of the normality test, the value which falls below 0.05 is considered to be significant and describes the data as non-normal lacking in symmetry and pointiness. And above value is taken as insignificant thus describing the normality of data. Thus, in this study, data is proved to be normality. It is gained that for normality test distribution of data must be in straight. In this study, the sample size is near a straight line and proves data to be normality. However, third-factor VitC content observation is deviating from the straight line describing the data is non-normal (Refer to appendix).
Independent samples T-test
From two samples such as Cultivar and Vit C content. It is gained that the Mean content for vitamin C is 1.5000 and the value of standard deviation is found to be .70711 and the standard error is found to be .5000. For the Vit C content sample, the Mean content for vitamin C is 50.0850, the standard deviation is 16.411195 and the standard error mean is 11.60500. Thus from the two samples, it is observed that vitamin C content is higher in the second sample which is Vit Content. Thus, the independent sample test proves the highest vitamin content in the extracted juice sample (Refer to appendix).
Discussion
From the above experiment, it is observed that the percentage of loss of Vitamin C after the application of HPP on the test samples is less. The difference between the quantity of Vitamin C before and after the conduction of HPP is not that high. This indicates that this particular processing technique results in the reduction of loss of Vitamin C. In other words, it can be inferred that HPP is helping in increasing the chances for retention of Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables after the completion of the food processing technique. The inferences drawn from this test can be supported by secondary findings obtained from the studies carried out by other authors.
From the two testing methods such as HPP and thermal pasteurization, it is gained that HPP is much better to secure vitamin c content as compared to another method. The HPP is less able to kill the presence of Vitamin C from extracted juice. Therefore, saving the life of vitamin juice packaging is there. This can be used to fulfill the requirements of vitamin C through the usage of this product. It is gained that using processing method such as thermal pasteurization destroys the presence of vitamin C content from the extracted juice and make it less beneficial to human. This particular technique results in a loss in vitamin C content from the juice. Thus the effectiveness of the HPP method is understood to be the application of low time low, pressure, and low thermal which helps in maintaining the vitamin content of the juice. It is gained that using the HPP method the flavor, nutritional value, and the color value is maintained. As such this can be applied to preserving the other fruits and vegetables.
The study by Tewari et al. (2017) has reflected that HPP is highly effective when compared with other processing techniques. The effectiveness of the process has been analysed in terms of low application pressure, temperature and less time and high pressure, temperature and prolonged-time period. The findings pointed out that application of low temperature, low pressure and less time improves the outcomes of the HPP. Tewari et al. (2017) have provided statements on the basis of experimental findings from different authors. The review of the experimental results reflected information similar to that obtained from the test conducted for this report.
Different pressure conditions applied and different extraction methods used can result in variance in the reduction level of Vitamin C during the process (Fernández-Jalao et al. 2019). From this, it can be inferred that the application of a different extraction process and a higher level of pressure could have produced different test results. In the test conducted, a low level of pressure was applied, which showed a low level of Vitamin C loss. Thus, variance in temperature and time could have increased or decreased the percentage. According to the findings of Fam et al. (2020), HPP assists in protecting the ascorbate molecules in a highly effective manner when compared with other thermal treatments. The study has further agreed that a reduction of 5% in the content of Vitamin C takes place if HPP is applied for processing the foods. The retention of Vitamin C level concerning this method has been recorded to be 90 per cent. According to Mieszczakowska-Frąc et al. (2021), HPP technology retains the bioactive components of fruits and vegetables.
Based on the findings obtained from different authors, it is evaluated that HPP is the most suitable process for increasing the retention of Vitamin C after the application of the food process techniques. HPP is not only retaining the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables but is also helping to prevent the deformation of the materials. Thus, the fruits and vegetables can be consumed in a fresh condition.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that HPP is beneficial in the processing technique as it preserves the nutritional value of the juice. It can be applied to preserve the value of other fruits and vegetables. The comparison of methods has proved to provide authentication about the processing method in preserving the value of vitamin C in the primary test. In addition, the percentage in change is avoidable to be in favor of the authentication as test outcomes have shown that the HPP processing technique is highly beneficial. From the overall study, it can be understood that the application of low pressure at a specific temperature retains the bioactivity of fruit juice and prevent it. The comparison of the test outcomes and other secondary findings has shown that HPP technology is highly efficient in reducing the loss of Vitamin C during food processing. The application of low pressure at a particular temperature and time replaces the need to use thermal processes. Such a technique retains the bioactivity of the fruits and vegetables, does not deform the ascorbate molecules and reduces the chances of loss of Vitamin C during the process. As a result, it is proving to be beneficial in meeting the Vitamin C needs of the people by providing quality processed foods.
References
Fam, S.N., Khosravi-Darani, K., Massoud, R. and Massoud, A., 2020. High-pressure processing in food. Platinum Open Access Journal, 11(4), pp.11553 – 11561
Fernández-Jalao, I., Sánchez-Moreno, C. and De Ancos, B., 2019. Effect of high-pressure processing on flavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids, dihydrochalcones and antioxidant activity of apple ‘Golden Delicious’ from different geographical origin. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 51, pp.20-31.
Galani, J.H., Patel, J.S., Patel, N.J. and Talati, J.G., 2017. Storage of fruits and vegetables in refrigerator increases their phenolic acids but decreases the total phenolics, anthocyanins and vitamin C with subsequent loss of their antioxidant capacity. Antioxidants, 6(3), p.59.
Lee, S., Choi, Y., Jeong, H.S., Lee, J. and Sung, J., 2018. Effect of different cooking methods on the content of vitamins and true retention in selected vegetables. Food science and biotechnology, 27(2), pp.333-342.
Mieszczakowska-Frąc, M., Celejewska, K. and Płocharski, W., 2021. Impact of innovative technologies on the content of vitamin C and its bioavailability from processed fruit and vegetable products. Antioxidants, 10(1), p.54.
Tewari, S., Sehrawat, R., Nema, P.K. and Kaur, B.P., 2017. Preservation effect of high pressure processing on ascorbic acid of fruits and vegetables: A review. Journal of Food Biochemistry, 41(1), p.e12319.
Wang, J., Law, C., Mujumdar, A.S. and Xiao, H.W., 2017. The degradation mechanism and kinetics of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables during thermal processing. Nema, PK, Kaur, BP and Mujumdar,(eds) AS Fundamentals & applications (Part III), pp.227-253.
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