Shelf-Life of Aseptically Bottled Orange Juice

In comparison with the regularly thermally processed food product, the aseptically filled ones which receive considerably less heat treatment, is thought to have better taste, texture and color, and exhibit less damage to nutritive properties. In this work the storage stability of aseptically bottled juice stored at 4, 15, 25°C was compared to that of hot filled juice. Criteria for stability were ascorbic acid retention, browning as measured by optical density, tristimulus color reflectance and organoleptic evaluation. It was found that the governing factor of establishing shelf-life was storage temperature rather than the method of filling. The quality parameters for the juices stored at 4 and 15°C were similar for both methods of filling. No difference was found in sensoric evaluations between aseptically filled juices and hot-filled juices stored at the same temperatures after 60 days storage. Immediately after filling the aseptically filled juice was judged slightly better but this difference disappeared rapidly during storage even at 4°C. In all cases juices stored at the lower storage temp, were judged better than those stored at the higher temperature regardless of filling method.