Ifs and buts of non-thermal processing technologies for plant-based drinks’ bioactive compounds

Abstract

Vegetables and fruits contain a variety of bioactive nutrients and non-nutrients that are associated with health promotion. Consumers currently demand foods with high contents of healthy compounds, as well as preserved natural taste and flavour, minimally processed without using artificial additives. Processing alternatives to be applied on plant-based foodstuffs to obtain beverages are mainly referred to as classical thermal treatments that although are effective treatments to ensure safety and extended shelf-life, also cause undesirable changes in the sensory profiles and phytochemical properties of beverages, thus affecting the overall quality and acceptance by consumers. As a result of these limitations, new non-thermal technologies have been developed for plant-based foods/beverages to enhance the overall quality of these products regarding microbiological safety, sensory traits, and content of bioactive nutrients and non-nutrients during the shelf-life of the product, thus allowing to obtain enhanced health-promoting beverages. Accordingly, the present article attempts to review critically the principal benefits and downsides of the main non-thermal processing alternatives (High hydrostatic pressure, pulsed electric fields, ultraviolet light, and ultrasound) to set up sound comparisons with conventional thermal treatments, providing a vision about their practical application that allows identifying the best choice for the sectoral industry in non-alcoholic fruit and vegetable-based beverages.

Influence of Sweeteners (Sucrose, Sucralose, and Stevia) on Bioactive Compounds in a Model System Study for Citrus–Maqui Beverages

“…In this frame, citrus–maqui control beverages presented a faster degradation (100% loss at day 9) in comparison with citrus controls (100% loss at day 27) or ascorbic acid model solutions (46% total loss during 27 days of storage; final concentration of 12.43 mg/100 mL) ( Figure 1 C). Because of the lower degradation in the vitamin C control relative to the citrus and citrus–maqui controls, it could be speculated that the degradation of ascorbic and dehydroascorbic acids is due, regardless of extrinsic factors, to endogenous enzymes with oxidase activity in the matrix of the citrus juice [ 26 ], such as polyphenol oxidase, peroxidase, and especially ascorbate oxidase, which catalyze ascorbic acid oxidation [ 14 , 27 , 28 ]. Last, but not least, the faster degradation of vitamin C, present in citrus–maqui beverages seems to be not only due to extrinsic factors, or to the presence of endogenous enzymes, but also to the presence of the anthocyanins characteristic of the maqui fruit.…”