Storage stability of ascorbic acid incorporated in edible whey protein films.

The stability of ascorbic acid (AA) incorporated in whey protein isolate (WPI) film and the related color changes during storage were studied. No significant loss of AA content was found in any films prepared from pH 2.0 casting solution stored at 30% relative humidity (RH) and 22 °C over 84 days. Total visible color difference (ΔE*(ab)) of all films slowly increased over storage time. The ΔE*(ab) values of pH 3.5 films were significantly higher than those of pH 2.0 films. The stability of AA-WPI films was found to be mainly affected by the pH of the film-forming solution and storage temperature. Oxidative degradation of AA-WPI films followed Arrhenius behavior. Reduction of the casting solution pH to below the pK(a1) (4.04 at 25 °C) of AA effectively maintained AA-WPI storage stability by greatly reducing oxidative degradation, whereas anaerobic and nonenzymatic browning were insignificant. The half-life of pH 2.0 AA-WPI film at 30% RH and 22 °C was 520 days.