Industrial orange juice debittering: Impact on bioactive compounds and nutritional value

The impact of an industrial debittering process (DP) on nutritional and bioactive compounds in orange juice (OJ) was studied. The DP was aimed at removing bitter components in OJ by physical adsorption in a resin. The levels of bioactive compounds (carotenoids, ascorbic acid and phenolics), total antioxidant activity and the colour in the fresh orange juices (non-debittered) and in the debittered counterparts were measured. The results demonstrated that the carotenoid contents were not significantly affected by the treatment. However, the debittered orange juices showed a reduction (p