Abstract
In order to minimize the precipitate formation upon pasteurization for whey-fruit juice-based beverages, a novel type of functional beverage was prepared, in which whey was replaced with Ricotta-cheese whey (RCW). Aiming at evaluating the influence of fruit juice type (yellow: apple, pear; red: blueberry, strawberry) and pasteurization conditions on color and antioxidants, four fruit-RCW-based beverages (juice/RCW ratio: 80/20, 14% soluble solids content) were prepared and divided into two lots, and each lot was pasteurized according to different times/temperatures. After pasteurization, no formation of precipitate was observed in the bottles, even if some turbidity, ranging from 25 NTU (pear-RCW) to 190 NTU (blueberry-RCW), was observed. The blending of juices with RCW caused color darkening in apple, pear, and strawberry blends, and brightening in the blueberry one. The pasteurization conditions had a greater impact on the color changes of ‘yellow’ beverages than those of the ‘red’ ones. With a lethal rate F 100 10 = 14 , there was a greater decrease in the total phenolic content (TPC) in blueberry-, strawberry-, and apple-RCW beverages, and a greater decrease in the monomeric anthocyanin pigment (MAP) and a smaller increase in the percent of polymeric color, in the blueberry-RCW beverage. Results on the antioxidant activity suggested that the Maillard reaction products formed in response to thermal treatment and/or the formation of anthocyanin polymers, likely compensate for the loss of antioxidant activity due to TPC and MAP degradations.
Highlights
Among the dairy-based beverages, whose market is still at a niche level, the whey-based fruit juice-type could be considered a novel functional beverage: the nutraceutical components coming from the fruit itself are combined with the highly prized nutraceutical components of whey, strengthening the functional status of the resulting product [1]
Our results showed that it is feasible to obtain novel functional beverages which do not require a cold chain, using only two ingredients: fruit juice and Ricotta-cheese whey (RCW)
Replacing whey with RCW in the formulation of fruit-based beverages succeeded in preventing the formation of precipitate at the bottom of the bottles with pasteurization, even if some turbidity in the 25-190 NTU was observed
Summary
Among the dairy-based beverages, whose market is still at a niche level, the whey-based fruit juice-type could be considered a novel functional beverage: the nutraceutical components coming from the fruit itself are combined with the highly prized nutraceutical components of whey, strengthening the functional status of the resulting product [1]. Most of the RCW is used directly as cattle dietary supplement, and its low protein concentration makes RCW useless for all of the processes which involve protein valorization, but its high lactose content could be exploited for bio-ethanol production [16] Another way to valorize RCW is to use it as an ingredient in fruit-based beverages, by exploiting its low protein concentration. It has been reported that acid whey and sweet rennet-based whey fruit-based beverages may suffer from precipitation, a phenomenon resulting from the aggregation of thermally-denatured proteins [17], which could negatively influence consumer acceptance. With the aim of filling this gap, this work includes ‘yellow’ and ‘red’ fruit-RCW-based beverages, bottled in uncolored glass and suitable for a long time storage at ambient temperature, which were studied for their physico-chemical characteristics, color, and antioxidant composition, as a function of the type of fruit juice Type, strawberry and blueberry for the ‘red’ type) and heat treatment conditions
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