Stability of black carrot anthocyanins in various fruit juices and nectars

Fruit juices (apple, grape, orange, grapefruit, tangerine and lemon) and nectars (apricot, peach and pineapple) were coloured with black carrot juice concentrate and stability of black carrot anthocyanins in these matrices was studied during heating at 70–90 °C and storage at 4–37 °C. Anthocyanin degradation, in all coloured juices and nectars, followed first-order reaction kinetics. During heating, black carrot anthocyanins in apple and grape juices showed higher stability than those in citrus juices at 70 and 80 °C. High stability was also obtained for the anthocyanins in peach and apricot nectars at these temperatures. Black carrot anthocyanins were the least stable in orange juice during both heating and storage. During storage, degradation of anthocyanins was very fast at 37 °C, especially in pineapple nectar. Refrigerated storage (4 °C) markedly increased the stability in all samples. Activation energies for the degradation of black carrot anthocyanins in coloured juices and nectars ranged from 42.1 to 75.8 kJ mol⁻¹ at 70–90 °C and 65.9–94.7 kJ mol⁻¹ at 4–37 °C.