Changes in orange juice color by addition of mandarin juice

The most natural way of improving the color of orange juices is by adding other juices, which provide a more intense coloration. The US legislation allows the addition of up to 10% of mandarin juice to the orange juice to improve its color. The first objective of this study was to compare the color characteristics of juices from 11 mandarin cultivars, currently being grown in Spain. Experimental results proved that only the green-red coordinate, a*, of the orange juices can be improved by adding mandarin juice. The mandarin cultivar that provided a juice with the highest values of a* was Clemenules. Once this selection was made, the effects of adding mandarin juice at different ratios, up to 10%, on the color characteristics of the orange juice were studied. Values of the a* coordinate went from 5.50 for the pure orange juice up to 6.29 for the mixture of 90% orange juice plus 10% of mandarin juice. Finally, hedonic tests proved that regular juice consumers preferred the color of mandarin juice to that of orange juice and that they liked better the color of the juice mixture containing 10% mandarin juice than that containing 3% mandarin juice.