Inverse method to estimate anthocyanin degradation kinetic parameters in cherry pomace during non-isothermal heating

Cherry pomace, a by-product of juice production, is rich in health beneficial anthocyanins (ACY). This study aimed to determine ACY retention in 25, 41, and 70% moisture content (MC) pomace at elevated temperatures. Pomace was heated in sealed metal cans at 105 °C and 127 °C in a steam retort up to 125 min. ACY levels were measured by the pH-differential method. A first-order degradation model with an Arrhenius dependence for the rate constant was used for modeling ACY levels. The rate constant and activation energy for the pomace at each moisture level were estimated by two inverse methods. For 70% MC, k115.8°C = 0.0129 min−1 and Ea = 75.7 kJ/mol. MC had no significant effect on the parameter estimates. Sequential estimation showed that the experiment had to be run to ≤25% ACY retention to obtain accurate parameter estimates. The estimation methods presented will be helpful for designing dynamic processes.