Recent studies on healthy nutrients changing in fruit juices processed with non-thermal technologies

Abstract

Fruit juices are the most preferred beverage around the world due to their high content of healthy nutrients and being source of antioxidants, such as vitamins, phenolic and carotenoid compounds. Fruit juices contain some vitamins, phenolic and carotenoid compounds having important antioxidant function that scavenge free radicals damaging cells with reacting structural molecules and reduce cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, they are unique for growth, maintenance and well-being of human life. Nowadays consumer demands have tendency around both safe to consume and minimal processed foods. Therefore, food processing industry has made an effort in order to improve processing technologies having potential to fulfill these consumer demands in final product. In the last decades, promising non-thermal food processing technologies, such as pulsed electric fields (PEF), high pressure processing (HPP), ultrasound processing (UP) and ultraviolet light processing (UVLP), have been alternatively developed to the traditional thermal pasteurization for extending shelf life and minimizing loss of healthy nutrients of fruit juices. In the present book chapter, effect of non-thermal technologies (PEF, HPP, UP and UVLP) on fruit juices, health related compounds (vitamins, phenolic and carotenoid compounds) were evaluated and discussed from the perspective of recent published research studies in the literature.