Shelf life of canned grapefruit juice - methods for evaluation and factors affecting it

Summary. Dissolved tin content was used as a criterion of shelf life for both can and content. Several methods for determining the dissolved tin content are available, but most of them are destructive and involve time-consuming digestion of the samples. A non-destructive In-Can measuring device, which permits the changes in dissolved tin content to be followed in sealed plain tin cans during storage, was found to be highly reliable as a shelf life indicator. Using those methods, the effect of several processing variables on the shelf life of canned grapefruit juice were studied. the detrimental effect of large headspace and slow cooling and the benefit of de-aeration were shown.