MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF VITAMIN C LOSSES IN LEMONS DURING THERMAL TREATMENTS

ANDREI I. SIMION*, OANA-IRINA PATRICIU, LACRAMIOARA RUSU, LUCIAN GAVRILA

“VASILE ALECSANDRI” UNIVERSITY OF BACĂU, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND FOOD ENGINEERING, MARASESTI NO 157, 600115 BACĂU, ROMÂNIA *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: ASIMION@UB.RO

Abstract

Predicting the evolution of vitamin C concentration in different thermal treatments could be beneficial in offering an estimative nutritive value for food products which are in the conceptual stage. Known for its chemical instability, vitamin C can be deactivated by a wide range of oxidizing agents, but in food industry the most common cause of vitamin C reduction is the use of various thermal processes alongside raw materials conversion into the final products. Mathematical analysis for a comparative study about the variations of vitamin C concentrations in lemons, variations produced by the uses of low, medium and respectively high temperature treatments is presented in this paper.

Keywords

vitamin C food processing mathematical analysis lemons