Increase in allergenicity towards cow's milk, lactose intolerance, the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, and flexitarian choice of food consumption have increased the market for cow's milk alternatives. Non-dairy plant-based beverages are useful alternatives because of the presence of bioactive components with health-promoting properties, which attract health-conscious consumers. However, the reduced nutritional value and sensory acceptability of the plant-based beverages (such as flavor, taste, and solubility) compared to cow's milk pose a big threat to its place in the market. Thermal treatments are commonly used to ensure the quality of plant-based beverages during storage. However, the application of high temperatures can promote the degradation of thermolabile compounds and some detrimental reactions, thus reducing protein digestibility and amino acid availability of non-dairy plant-based beverages substitutes. New and advanced food processing technologies, such as high-pressure processing, high-pressure homogenization, pulsed electric fields, and ultrasound, are being researched for addressing the issues related to shelf life increase, emulsion stability, preservation of nutritional content and sensorial acceptability of the final product. However, the literature available on the application of non-thermal processing technologies on the physicochemical and nutritional properties of plant-based beverages is scarce. Concerted research efforts are required in the coming years in the functional plant-based beverages sector to prepare newer, tailor-made products which are palatable as well as nutritionally adequate.

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Tea ( Camellia sinensis) is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, with an excellent source of bioactive compounds such as catechins, caffeine, and epigallocatechin. There is an increasing trend to extract these bioactive compounds to deliver them as value-added products. Generally, the extraction of polyphenols and other functional compounds from different parts of tea is carried out using different solvents (e.g., water, water–ethanol, ethanol, methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, and acetonitrile). The extraction efficiency of functional compounds from tea depends on the type and polarity of the solvent as well as the applied process. Several conventional techniques, such as boiling, heating, Soxhlet, and cold extraction, are used to extract bioactive ingredients. However, these procedures are unsuitable for achieving high yields and biological activities due to the long extraction times of cold brewing and the high temperatures in other heating methods. Many efforts have been carried out in food and pharmaceutical industries to replace conventional extraction techniques with innovative technologies (e.g., microwave (MAE), ultrasonic (UAE), pressurized liquid (PLE), pulsed electric field (PEF), and supercritical fluid (SFE)), which are fast, safe, energy-saving, and can present eco-friendly characteristics. These innovative extraction techniques have proven to improve the recovery rate of phenolic-based antioxidant compounds from tea and increase their extraction efficiency. In this review, the application of novel processing technologies for the extraction of value-added compounds from tea leaves is reviewed. The advantages and drawbacks of using these technologies are also highlighted.

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