TITLE:
Nutritional Composition of Orange Juice: A Comparative Study between French Commercial and Home-Made Juices
AUTHORS:
Aurelie Chanson-Rolle, Veronique Braesco, Julien Chupin, Laurence Bouillot
KEYWORDS:
Orange Juice, Process, Vitamin C, Sugars
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.7 No.4,
April
25,
2016
ABSTRACT: The study aimed to compare the nutritional composition of commercial and home-made orange
juices with a fruit content of 100%, i.e., without dilution with water and without addition of sugars
or any other sweeteners. Orange juice samples (n = 12 for both types of juice) were representative
of the French market and of French consumers’ habits as determined by a consumer survey. The
results showed that both types of juices contained the same concentrations in total sugars and polyphenols
and had low levels of dietary fiber (P > 0.05 for all parameters). Commercial orange
juice contained less vitamin C (P = 0.035) and folate (P = 0.002) than home-made juice (15% and
27% less, respectively), probably owing to the vitamin degradation that may occur during industrial
production (e.g., during pasteurization) and storage of commercial orange juice. The observed
differences were of relatively small magnitude overall, however, and within the expected
ranges for vitamin loss due to pasteurization and storage at ambient temperature. Indeed, commercial
orange juice contained 85% of the vitamin C concentration measured in home-made juice,
showing that vitamin C was well preserved in commercial juice. Another study with a larger number
of samples would be needed to confirm these observations.