Food Chemistry Composition & Analysis Sample

Introduction:

Vitamin C which is also known as ascorbic acid or ascorbate is found in almost all kinds of foods and it is also a direct supplement and is very essential for our health.  Vitamin C was first discovered by Albert Szent Gyorgyi who was a Hungarian biochemist. The benefits of Vitamin C in our body is quiet vast. It helps in repairing tissue, helps in the formation of collagen and production of various enzymes and it considered to be very important for strengthening the immune system. Vitamin C is also very common in treating scurvy ( A type of disease caused by the deficiency of Vitamin C which leads to swollen bleeding gums and opening of the past wounds). This disease affected a lot of malnourished sailors during the 18^th century.  Initially Vitamin C was isolated in the year 1928 and later the structure was determined in the year 1933. Vitamin C is very important for the growth of every part of the body.  It is used to develop some of the most important proteins which help in the formation of skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. Vitamin C is a very strong anti oxidant which helps to strengthen the natural defenses of the body which helps in reducing the risks of having chronic diseases like heart disease and lung disease. Vitamin C also helps in the management of blood pressure (High (Thao,2021).  When a person experiences high blood pressure, there are very high chances that the person  might have very high chances of experiencing heart failure which eventually leads to death. A lot of research studies have shown that Vitamin C helps in lowering the blood pressure in individuals who have low blood pressure as well as for those individuals who have high blood pressure.  Even in animal study, it was observed that consuming vitamin C supplement helped to chill the blood vessels which transport blood from the heart which in turn helped in reducing the level of blood pressure.  Another very important benefits of Vitamin C is that it helps in reducing the blood uric acid level and helps in the prevention of gout attacks ( Kind of arthritis which affects about 4% of the American population on an average) (Ferrari,2021). When a person experience gout attacks, it can cause inflammation in their body and joints especially those individuals with big toes.  People who experience gout attacks often experience swelling and sudden attacks on the pain. Vitamin C is beneficial for so many things which help to prevent the deficiency of iron. Iron is a very important nutrient which contributes in function different parts of the body. It is very important for the production of red blood cells and helps in the transportation of oxygen all over the body.  Vitamin C supplement can be very beneficial for the improvement of the absorption of the iron from the diet that one consumes.  This can be very beneficial for individuals that are under meat free diet because meat is a very major source of iron (Ye,2021).

Vitamin C is water soluble vitamin as well as an antioxidant and is very famous for collagen synthesis because it is very important for cross linking of various collagen proteins and is also required for different functions like the synthesis of hormones and the production process of metabolic energy. The reason why Vitamin C is an antioxidant is because it has the capability to lend electrons so that it will be able to minimize the reactive oxygen species in the human body which is the acronym for ROS. Antioxidants are very essential in our body because it helps in the protection of the human structure by improving the protein, lipid and the DNA content from different damage in the body and the oxidation of DNA.  Also Vitamin C is found in almost all kinds of food like citrus fruits and other kinds of fruits and vegetables. Vitamin is C is taken as very essential nutrient because humans are not able to produce this Vitamin on their own and so humans need to get their nutrients from their diet almost every single day. According to studies from Office of Dietary Supplements which is the acronym of ODS, it is important that humans must consume at least ninety milligrams for males, seventy five milligrams for females, eighty five milligrams for pregnant women and about one twenty milligrams during the process of breastfeeding. Also it is recommended an extra of thirty five mg for individuals who smoke.

Methods

 During the process of food processing, Vitamin C can be lost easily by washing, soaking or cooking of water. A lot of the major loss of vitamin C is also contributed during washing, chopping, pasteurizing, freezing, fermenting, packaging, transportation etc. Usually the loss of vitamin c starts during the process of harvesting and this continue throughout the handling process, in the industry or during cleaning at home. These are the main reasons for the cause of loss of vitamin C. Certain measures are taken up to avoid the loss during the manufacturing process like avoiding over washing the fruits. Also Vitamin C loss is common when chemicals are used in the processed food. This contributes a lot to decrease the content of Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables. Also the content of vitamin C can be effected by heat and light as well. Not only these factors but every preparation in the processing of food aids in reducing certain vitamins or nutrients in the food.

Result:

In part due to the differences in the features of fruits and vegetables, the loss of vitamin C varies from one product to another. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the drying process has an impact on the retention of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables. In addition to the loss of vitamin C that occurs during the course of treatment, other important elements such as washing and peeling have an impact on the amount of vitamin C present in dried fruits and vegetables. Temperature and time are the two environmental elements that have the greatest impact on vitamin C decomposition.

With the Cultivator table this can be seen that the normal frequency of Vltamin C loss was recorded as 33.33% and commutive frequency was 66.67%.

The nutritional value of fruits and vegetables is also affected by the amount of time that they are exposed to the drying conditions during the harvesting process. However, depending on the region that has been exposed and the length of time, the loss in Vitamin C may be less severe because the rise in heat will shorten the time required for drying (Liu,2021). More research, however, is required in order to determine the preservation of vitamin C in dried fruits and vegetables due to the fact that each of them has its own set of properties that must be investigated. Different processes, such as drying methods, were tested in order to assess the preservation of vitamin C. These processes included solar and sun drying, heat drying, and microwave drying, among others. The temperature of the air in these studies ranged from 42 to 110 degrees Celsius (SUBROTO,2021). During hot drying, it was discovered that the vitamin C content of samples that had been soaked in 1.5 of K was higher than that of other samples. After 24 hours of drying under solar and sun illumination, the moisture content of 10 to 15 mm samples was reduced from 895 g/kg to 500 to 550 g/kg. In microwave drying, it was discovered that the air velocity increased from 1.0 to 2.0 at the same air tem when the microwaves were turned on. (Yeasmin,2021).

Discussion:

Vitamin C retention in drying process of fruits and vegetables.

Various drying methods have been employed in order to preserve the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables. To achieve the required results, a wide range of processes have been tried, ranging from the simplest approach of sunlight and sun drying to the most expensive method of microwave and freeze drying. The environment in which fruits and vegetables are preserved has been altered to guarantee that dried foods have the maximum nutritional value possible when consumed in non-traditional ways. The drying process is depicted in the following flow chart. (Phan,2021).When compared to other ways of drying, solar and sun drying are widely used in tropical and subtropical regions. This is because they’re so cheap compared to the alternatives. Sun exposure or solar energy drying is a frequent method of drying them out in the open air and allowing for a natural process of drying. Studies on the vitamin C content of cassava, spinach, cow pea, potato, and fenugreek leaves that have been sun dried have found that the vitamin C level is much decreased. For the first three leaves (cassava, spinach, and cow pea), researchers found that the vitamin C content of the leaves was higher when they were dried in the shade than when they were exposed to sunlight. On the other side, potatoes received exactly what they deserved! Researchers in the food industry found that shade drying produced dried goods with significantly higher levels of vitamin C than those made from fresh vegetables. When other fruits and their leaves were exposed to various testing, it was found that the vitamin content of dried commodities did not alter greatly depending on the technique of drying indicated above. It is also important to note that drying processes utilised were only 12% effective, regardless of the thickness of the materials. The thickness of the leaves has no effect on the amount of vitamin C produced during the operation. (Ozkan,2021)

Along with solar and sun drying, hot air drying is a commonly used and growing method of drying textiles. Some researchers have employed hot air drying to investigate some of the more conventional methods to guarantee that the drying process has no influence on the amount of vitamin C present in the dried products. This procedure was performed to ensure that the drying process had no influence on the vitamin C content of the dried goods. Numerous researchers considered and exhaustively analysed a large number of different types of fruits, vegetables, and other cultivars and variants for this study. To conduct the research, a variety of common vegetables were picked, including mango, onion, plum, apricot, brinjal, and other similarly related fruits and vegetables. Numerous researchers have examined the vitamin C retention in dried tomatoes or tomato pulp. According to the investigations, the air temperature ranged between forty-two and one hundred and ten degrees celcius, and the drying time, final moisture content, cultivars, and air velocity varied from fruit to fruit. Additionally, several trials were undertaken, and the presence of vitamin C was found to be extremely low in some cases and non-existent in others. Thus, it was determined that, on average, vitamin C retention was very low in certain cases and completely absent in others.

Microwave drying:

Even though hot air drying is a very easy method in the drying of food products, it usually affects the quality of the food. Because the foods are exposed to sun for the longest time, they can experience case hardening, loss of very essential compounds and lightening of the color and the nutrient content and so some optional drying methods are mandatory for the purpose of food processing so that it will be able to manufacture much more better products. And because of the characteristics, the method of micro drying has had a lot of popularity over the years in the food industry. While using microwave rays to dry the fruits, it can bring a lot of advantages by decreasing the drying time which helps to maintain the nutrient quality in the dried product.  A lot of the researchers researched about the change of quality in food during the process of micro wave drying. During the process of drying of potato it was observed that the aerobic acid content decreased with the increase in time while there was an increase in vitamin C with increase in temperature.

Conclusion:

 A lot of ways have been developed for observing the rate of loss of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables. A lot of the fruits and vegetables consists about seventy to ninety percent loss of water once they part ways from the main source of nutrition. During the process they experience very high rate of respiration which makes them loss their natural content (Vitamins and nutrients).  Vitamin C naturally occurs in a lot of fruits and vegetables like apple, mango, papaya, pineapple etc. However this nutrient content are deteriorated when they undergo certain industrial practices like cooking, canning, exposure to strong sunlight and addition of harmful chemical substances. It is very important to be very precautious to take proper care and be very cautious during the process of food production especially large scale industries. It is also necessary for the government to let the industries maintain strict protocol. Vitamin C is a very important substance found in every fruits and vegetables and these nutrients present it in not only helps in prevention of disease but also they act as a very important role as biological antioxidants. Because of the importance of vitamin C for humans as well as for its use to indicate the quality of a food, it must be maintained and preserved in the best way possible whether during industrial practices or any practices done at home.

Reference:

Caritá, A.C., de Azevedo, J.R., Buri, M.V., Bolzinger, M.A., Chevalier, Y., Riske, K.A. and Leonardi, G.R., 2021. Stabilization of vitamin C in emulsions of liquid crystalline structures. International journal of pharmaceutics, 592, p.120092.

Ferrari, C.C., Morgano, M.A. and Germer, S.P.M., 2021. Evaluation of water sorption isotherm, glass transistion temperature, vitamin C and color stability of mango peel powder during storage. SN Applied Sciences, 3(2), pp.1-12.

Liu, J.A., Ren, Y., Wang, G., Sun, H., Zhu, Y., Wang, L., Zhang, C., Zhang, L. and Jiang, L., 2021. Effect of Steaming on Vitamin Retention in Tubers from Eight Cultivars of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). Applied Sciences, 11(8), p.3669.

Ozkan, G., Stübler, A.S., Aganovic, K., Dräger, G., Esatbeyoglu, T. and Capanoglu, E., 2021. Retention of polyphenols and vitamin C in cranberrybush purée (Viburnum opulus) by means of non-thermal treatments. Food Chemistry, 360, p.129918.

Phan, A.D.T., Adiamo, O., Akter, S., Netzel, M.E., Cozzolino, D. and Sultanbawa, Y., 2021. Effects of drying methods and maltodextrin on vitamin C and quality of Terminalia ferdinandiana fruit powder, an emerging Australian functional food ingredient. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

SUBROTO, E., NUR’ALIFIA GARDIANTINI, P.U.T.R.I., RAHMANI, F.R., FEBRI, A. and NURAMALIA, D.A.M., 2021. Bioavailability and Bioactivity of Vitamin C-A Review. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 13(2).

Thao, N.M.P., Vi, N.T.T. and Van, N.T.N., DETERMINATION OF VITAMIN C IN MULTIVITAMIN EFFERVESCENT TABLETS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY. Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 5(4), pp.271-272.

Ye, Z., Xu, N., Li, D., Qian, J., Du, C. and Chen, M., 2021. Vitamin C mediates the activation of green tea extract to modify nanozero-valent iron composites: Enhanced transport in heterogeneous porous media and the removal of hexavalent chromium. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 411, p.125042.

Yeasmin, F., Rahman, H., Rana, S., Khan, J. and Islam, N., 2021. The optimization of the drying process and vitamin C retention of carambola: An impact of storage and temperature. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 45(1), p.e15037.

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