Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is extensively used in the food industry, not only for its nutritional value, but also for its many functional contributions to product quality. There have been many studies on the stability of ascorbic acid in different beverages, but no study was found on the reaction rate constants for ascorbic acid degradation in peach purée. In this work, the degradation of ascorbic acid in Jade peach purée was studied in anaerobic conditions and from 70-90 °C. The peach purée concentrations tested were 12, 22 and 32 °Brix. The kinetic analysis of the data suggests that the degradation was significantly represented by zero and first-order kinetic models. The rate of ascorbic acid degradation in peach purée was temperature dependent. The average activation energy was 45 kJ.mol-1 and independent of the concentration of soluble solids.
ascorbic acid; peach purée; degradation kinetics
