The quality of orange juice

Mild processing technologies allow to obtain OJ available year-round, with characteristics closer to those of fresh orange, namely for its content in substances exhibiting free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. These healthy components, mainly vitamin C, carotenoids and flavonoids, exhibit different absorption kinetics, bioavailability and antiradical mechanisms. Anyway, there is greater absorption of these nutrients when taken not as singly as supplements, but when consumed in minimally processed fruit, such as OJ, in which they naturally appear along with all the other biologically active phytonutrients that citrus fruits contain. Type of processing, packaging and storage conditions affect the OJ quality; generally, the shelf life of OJ is estimated as the time period in which there is a 50% of vitamin C loss. Beyond the nutritional and healthy values, sensorial quality of OJ is also important, in fact, because of its pleasant taste, the orange juice often represents the major vitamin C intake source in children’s dietary.