Freshly squeezed orange juice aroma is due to a complex mixture of volatile compounds as it lacks a specific character impact compound. Fresh hand-extracted juice is unstable, and thermal processing is required to reduce enzyme and microbial activity. Heating protocols range from the lightly heated not from concentrate, NFC, to the twice heated, reconstituted from concentrate, RFC, juices. Thermal processing profoundly effects aroma composition. Aroma volatiles are further altered by subsequent time-temperature storage conditions. Heating reduces levels of reactive aroma impact compounds such as neral and geranial, and creates off-flavors or their precursors from Maillard, Strecker, and acid catalyzed hydration reactions. Off-flavors such as 4-vinylguaiacol, p-cymene, and carvone are the products of chemical reactions. Other off-flavors such as butane-2,3-dione, guaiacol, and 2,6-dichlorophenol are indicators of microbial contaminations. Since most orange juice consumed worldwide is processed, the goal of this review is to summarize the widely scattered reports on orange juice aroma differences in the three major juice products and subsequent aroma changes due to packaging, storage, and microbial contamination with special emphasis on results from GC-O studies.

Fresh orange juice is a highly desirable but unstable product. This review examines analytical findings, odor activity, and variations due to cultivar, sampling methods, manner of juicing, plus possible enzymatic and microbial artifacts. Initial attempts to characterize orange juice odor were based on volatile quantitation and overemphasized the importance of high concentration volatiles. Although over 300 volatiles have been reported from GC-MS analytical studies, this review presents 36 consensus aroma active components from GC-olfactometry studies consisting of 14 aldehydes, 7 esters, 5 terpenes, 6 alcohols, and 4 ketones. Most are trace (microg/L) components. (+)-Limonene is an essential component in orange juice odor although its exact function is still uncertain. Total amounts of volatiles in mechanically squeezed juices are three to 10 times greater than hand-squeezed juices because of elevated peel oil levels. Elevated peel oil changes the relative proportion of several key odorants. Odor active components from solvent extraction studies differ from those collected using headspace techniques as they include volatiles with low vapor pressure such as vanillin. Some reported odorants such as 2,3-butanedione are microbial contamination artifacts. Orange juice odor models confirm that fresh orange aroma is complex as the most successful models contain 23 odorants.

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Citrus juices are a complex mixture of flavor and taste components. Historically, the contributions of taste components such as sugar (sweet) and acid (sour) components were understood before impactful aroma volatiles because they existed at higher concentrations and could be measured with the technologies of the 1920s and 1930s. The advent of gas chromatography in the 1950s allowed citrus researchers to separate and tentatively identify the major citrus volatiles. Additional volatiles were identified when mass spectrometry was coupled to capillary GC. Unfortunately, the major citrus volatiles were not major influences of citrus flavor. The major aroma impact compounds were found at trace concentrations. With the advent of increasingly more sensitive instrumental techniques, juice sample size shrank from 2025 L in the 1920s to 10 mL today and detection limits fell from percent to micrograms per liter. Currently gas chromatography-olfactometry is the technique of choice to identify which volatiles in citrus juices possess aroma activity, determine their relative aroma strength, and characterize their aroma quality but does not indicate how they interact together or with the juice matrix. Flavor equations based primarily on nonvolatiles and other physical measurements have been largely unsuccessful. The most successful flavor prediction equations that employ instrumental concentration values are based on a combination of aroma active volatiles and degrees Brix (sugar) values.