Preservation of beverage nutrients by high hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

Beverages not only supply refreshment pleasure, but also provide a unique delivery system for nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, and others. Traditionally beverages have been preserved by the way of thermal processes including pasteurization and sterilization. On account of the negative effects of high process temperatures or times on nutritional value of beverages, alternative nonthermal processing techniques have been used in recent years. High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) is one of these nonthermal preservation techniques, which could be an alternative pasteurization and sterilization in the field of beverages as it has shown good results on minimizing the quality loss in terms of nutritional value. HHP method offers a quality assurance and safety in beverage processing without adding heat or preservatives. Moreover, the combination of HHP with other food preservation techniques has been studied in order to further extension of the shelf life of beverages without decreasing the nutritional value. HHP have been successfully implemented to a variety of beverages such as fruit and vegetable juices, caffeinated beverages, alcoholic beverages, and dairy beverages. The previous studies indicated that besides vitamins and proteins, phenolic compounds, aroma components, and color pigments were more retained in these beverages by HHP than thermal treatment. This chapter includes the effects of HHP application on the nutritional parameters of beverages.