Effects of Chemical Preservatives and Storage on Constituents Used to Characterize Lemon Juice

Abstract

The effects of sulfur dioxide, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate preservatives on the analytical methods for chemically characterizing lemon juice were studied. None of the preservatives had any effects on the analyses for total acidity as citric acid, the l-malic acid, the UV absorbance at the 330 m/x peak (referred to as the total phenolics), or the formol determination of total amino acids (after expelling the S02 by boiling 1 min). The study was continued over storage periods of up to 17 weeks at room temperature and 6 weeks at 30 °C. The constituents measured remained relatively stable except for some small but statistically significant changes that were apparently a function of both the juice and, in the case of the total phenolics, the preservative used. For practical applications, the changes did not affect the multiple regression approach to the chemical characterization of lemon juice