Study of the influence of carotenoid structure and individual carotenoids in the qualitative and quantitative attributes of orange juice colour

This study was conducted to gain insight into the influence of the chemical structure of carotenoids in the colour of orange juices. For this purpose we correlated the colorimetric information of commercially available OJ with their carotenoid content by means of multiple regressions We have concluded that the carotenoids better correlated to the hue are not necessarily the same as those mainly related to the chroma. According to our statistical analyses, the pigments mainly related to hab   were zeinoxanthin, lutein and a mixture of violaxanthin isomers, whilst those mainly related to Cab∗ were zeaxanthin, (9Z)- or (9′Z)-antheraxanthin and zeinoxanthin. These findings are very interesting for the citrus industry, since some carotenoids are used as colorants and the colour of OJ does influence the consumers’ choices.