Effect of temperature, oxygen and light on the degradation of β-carotene, lutein and α-tocopherol in spray-dried spinach juice powder during storage.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction between packaging parameters (transmission of light and oxygen) and storage temperatures (4, 20, 40 °C) on nutrient retention of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) juice, spray-dried in the absence of an added encapsulant. β-Carotene was more susceptible to degradation compared with lutein and α-tocopherol. Under our experimental conditions, it was observed that excluding low fluorescent light intensity and air by vacuum packaging at 20 °C did not seem to improve nutrient retention loss over time (p > 0.05). The rate of β-carotene, lutein and α-tocopherol loss displayed first order reaction kinetic with low activation energy of 0.665, 2.650 and 13.893 kJ/mol for vacuum, and 1.089, 4.923 and 14.142 kJ/mol for non-vacuum, respectively. The reaction kinetics and half-life for β-carotene, lutein and α-tocopherol at 4 °C and non-vacuumed were 2.2 × 10, 1.2 × 10, and 0.8 × 10 day, and 32.08, 58.25 and 85.37 day, respectively.