ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Food Sci. Technol.
Sec. Food Characterization
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frfst.2025.1656271
Quality of fruit juices in terms of physico-chemical, microbiological, thermal and antioxidant properties, evaluation of stability during storage
Provisionally accepted
- Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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The storage stability and quality of seabuckthorn, aronia and black currant juices, unsweetened and with added honey, was analyzed in terms of sensory, physico-chemical, microbiological, thermal and antioxidant properties. The thermal analysis of juices has been less studied; however, it is highly interesting due to the specifics provided on juice composition and practical uses, particularly the potential to produce dry powder forms of juices. For aronia juice with added honey was recorded the highest sensory total score, while the lowest score was registered for the mixture of sea buckthorn and aronia juice. The physico-chemical properties were analyzed: total sugar content, acidity, dry matter content, electrical conductivity, ascorbic acid content, polyphenol content, pH and antioxidant capacity. The juices showed low pH values (2.78 - 3.75), higher sugar content in the case of honey sweetened juices (38.4 - 42.9 Brix) compared to juices without honey (9.5 - 18.3 Brix), high ascorbic acid content (62.4 - 94.19 mg/100 g), high concentrations of polyphenols (2211.47 - 4614.17 mg EAG/L) and high antioxidant capacity as scavenging capacity of 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (87.05 - 94.19 %). The microbiological analysis monitored the degree of preservability over time, evaluating the samples immediately after unpacking and subsequently at 7-day intervals up to 56 days of refrigeration. The microbiological quality of the juices remained within acceptable limits up to the 14th day of refrigeration, after which a significant increase in yeasts and molds was observed, exceeding 5 log CFU/mL. The prepared juices were high in compounds with health benefits such as vitamin C, polyphenols, that showed a high antioxidant capacity and can be consumed up to 14 days of storage in refrigerated conditions.
Keywords: juice, Buckthorn, Aronia, Black currant, thermal analysis, microbiology 1
Received: 29 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dippong, Pop, ZORICA and Mihali. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Thomas Dippong, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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