Health benefits of fruit juice
A new three year research project will attempt to identify the effects of fruit juice processing on health and polyphenol levels in drinks.
The effects of fruit juice processing and metabolism on cardiovascular health is a three-year project that will be undertaken by the Institute of Food Research, the University of St Andrews and University of East Anglia. It will assess the usefulness of anthocyanins a particular class of polyphenols in juice drinks for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, said Paul Kroon at the Institute of Food Research. Anthocyanins are found in fruits such as cranberry, blackcurrant, blueberries and red apple skins.
At the moment, he said, there is little evidence to indicate what happens to anthocyanins in these fruits when they are processed into fruit juices. So the project will look at how the anthocyanins break down during different fruit juice manufacturing processes and what effects this has on the body.
The project will be particularly relevant to the processed food and beverage industry because "although the alteration of anthocyanins during food processing has generally been considered of negative consequence, the proposed research could establish this as a neutral or potentially beneficial outcome; providing valuable evidence to support the use of fruit juices for the delivery of beneficial components for health", according to a synopsis of the study.
Having jointly received over £500,000 from the Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC), the project will begin in January 2010. DRINC is a £10M partnership between research councils and food and drink companies, including Cadbury, Danone and Nestlé, to fund research into diet and health. 10% of the money comes from industry with the rest coming from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council.
It is thought that the completed study may also generate findings that may be useful for future studies aimed at investigating the relative activity of other dietary polyphenols, such as those found in coffee, tea, wine or chocolate.
