ISHS Acta Horticulturae 744: I International Symposium on Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables
CULTIVAR SELECTION BRIDGED WITH INNOVATIVE PROCESSING: A NEW STRATEGY TO PRESERVE AND MAXIMIZE ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN BLUEBERRY JUICE |
| Authors: | A. Brambilla, R. Lo Scalzo, G. Bertolo, D. Torreggiani |
| Keywords: | Vaccinium corymbosum L., anthocyanins, phenolics, blanching, radical scavenging activity |
| Abstract:
The importance of consuming pigmented berries rich in polyphenols and anthocyanins in our everyday diet is related to the well established protective effect exerted, by fruits and vegetables, naturally rich in antioxidant compounds, on health, in particular on degenerative chronic diseases. In order to enrich a diet with antioxidant compounds, without resorting to concentrate extracts, the development of new strategies is required to obtain high quality horticultural products retaining their natural abundance of these bioactive compounds. With the aim to obtain a blueberry fruit juice rich in nutritional and biological compounds, the combined effect was investigated of cultivar and processing technology on physical and chemical properties, phenolics content and antioxidant activity of the final fruit juice. Five highbush blueberry cultivars (‘Berkeley’, ‘Coville’, ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Bluegold’, ‘Bluechip’) from the same geographic location were individually processed into juice and the effect of an initial steam blanching step on raw berries was tested; this innovative technological step, not contemplated in traditional juice processing, was introduced in order to inactivate oxidative enzymes responsible for an early degradation of phenolic compounds. Results proved that the introduction of a blanching step was effective in improving phenolics recovery from berries to juice, leading to a product characterized by a higher antioxidant activity, being this healthy improvement dependent on the tested blueberry cultivar. | |
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