Preservatives and Preservation Approaches in Beverages

Volume 15: The Science of Beverages

Alexandru Grumezescu, Alina Maria Holban

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128166857
• eBook ISBN: 9780128166864
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Preservatives for the Beverage Industry, Volume Fifteen, a new release in The Science of Beverages series, is a valuable resource that discusses preservatives and their impact in the beverage industry, including potential health impacts. The book takes a broad, multidisciplinary approach to explore both conventional and novel approaches of the types and uses of preservatives. The latest applications and techniques to reduce the use of non-natural or health-threatening preservation elements are also covered. This is a must-have reference for anyone who needs to increase their technical-scientific knowledge in this field.- Includes information on the use of hurdle technology in the preservation of beverages- Provides the latest research and impact of antimicrobial use in the beverages industry- Presents the benefits and risks of preservatives to ensure safety in beverage products

1

Preservatives in Beverages: Perception and Needs

V.N. Kalpana; V. Devi Rajeswari Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore, India

Abstract

A good number of reasons make beverages one of the most active functional foods and they include efficient storage for shelf-stable and refrigerated products, tremendous convenience in distribution, and the effortlessness in meeting consumer demand. One of the vital concerns in the food industry is about the process of safeguarding functional foods from chemical and microbial deterioration. When it comes to food preservation, the most natural methods are smoking, pasteurizing, freezing and refrigeration, and boiling. Traditionally, the use of chemically synthesized preservatives is in practice for reducing oxidative deterioration as well as microbial spoiling. Conversely, there are concerns that prolonged use of some chemicals poses potential health problems. The focus of the current study is to enhance awareness about the detrimental effects of artificial preservatives and it advocates natural preservatives for ensuring excellent safety and preservation of substances, high therapeutic efficacy, and enhanced general health.

Keywords

Natural preservatives; Artificial preservatives; Preservative techniques; Functional foods; Boiling

1.1 Introduction

The most affordable way of enhancing the health and well-being of the maximum number of people living in this world is by providing proper nutrition. It has been estimated that more than seven billion people in this world are consuming some type of beverage every day in order to meet their daily nutritional requirements and the entire quantity comes from around tens of billions of servings on a daily basis. There are different kinds of beverages such as energy drinks, milk, soda, hard liquor, beer, wine, fruit juice, tea, and coffee available and you can even find them in the form of blending any ingredients seen in water. In fact, the life of every human being begins fully bathed in a sea of fluids. The fact of the matter is that human beings as fetuses drink prior to birth as well. Every individual consumes a beverage soon after he/she is born, primarily with breast milk, and this habit of taking water remains until death (Wilson and Temple, 2016). There is a drastic increase in the consumption of energy drinks among younger people even after knowing the fact that energy drinks have adverse effects (Pandey et al., 2014).

The growth of the international beverage industry is extremely fast every year because of the launch of innovative products like herbal nutritional pills, antiaging water, fresh energy drinks, and vitamin fortified water as well. This rapid growth puts forward a good number of analytical challenges. The ever evolving and fresh needs for assessing traditional drinks such as bottled water, alcoholic beverages, milk drinks, fruit juices, and sodas aggravate these challenges in a serious way. A classic example is the process of contaminating milk with melamine and baby milk formula. The quality of the composition and safety of every beverage needs to be supervised to keep track of the product consistency, adulteration, and contamination and proper monitoring is also needed to make sure that there is regulatory compliance from raw ingredients like fruit additives and water to the ultimate product.

Beverages can be defined as any drinkable liquid other than water. They can be grouped into three categories: alcoholic (Gassara et al., 2015; Chagas et al., 2012), nonalcoholic (Ghorbel-Bellaaj et al., 2012; Rao et al., 2011), and dairy-based beverages (Higueras et al., 2015). Nonalcoholic beverages can be classified in terms of sugar content, as sugared (e.g., fruit juices, fruit nectar, and concentrated fruit juice) and nonsugared beverages (e.g., tea, coffee, and tisanes) (Fernandes et al., 2008). The dairy-based beverages differ from the others by the high content of protein and fat forming emulsions (e.g., milk, milkshakes, and milk juice drinks).

Beverage industries are always challenged to meet the needs of consumers, namely the demand for safe, healthier, and functional products. Enhancing minimally processed or fresh products intake seems to be the tendency in the market. Thus, food technologists search for compounds from natural resources to be used in beverages, for example, to increase their shelf life, introducing natural preservatives (Nunes et al., 2016), developing active packaging (Ferreira et al., 2014), improving clarification procedures (Nualkaekul et al., 2012), and developing novel functional beverages. The practice of adding food additives to maintain flavor or improve the look and taste has been in prevalence for centuries. One perfect example is the utilization of sulfur dioxide in wines. Another instance is the use of phosphoric acid in soft drinks, which is being done to provide them with a more intense flavor. This method results in slowing down the antioxidant properties of bacteria and mold.

For improving the flavor and maximizing the shelf life, beverages are being loaded with different types of food additives. The amount of nutritious carbonated water available in a majority of the beverage products comes to around 90%. The sweetening process of water is done using sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (blend of dextrose and fructose) is also used to sweeten the water. The taste of the beverages is enhanced by the sweeteners while the food additives that work as nutrition enhancers assist in making beverages more functional and nutritious. In order to curtail the microorganism growth, beverages and foods are added with the processed beverage and food preservatives. There are synthetic as well as natural preservatives available and they improve the shelf life without making any serious changes in the nutritional value, form, texture, and taste (Bomgardner, 2014).

Additionally, they also prevent the product from becoming toxic, thus making them edible for a longer period of time. People always show allegiance to healthy, green, and safe foods. Since the demand is for these types of foods, there is a trend in the market to grow the intake of optimally processed and fresh food products, thereby eliminating the availability of chemical additives, which comprises food preservatives (Boye and Arcand, 2013).

1.2 Beverages

1.2.1 Beverage Consumption

The modern food industry provides various types of beverages. On the other hand, water and breast milk constituted the diet of the early ancestors (Wolf et al., 2008). The consumption of fluid, primarily water, is inevitable for sustaining human life and it is indispensable for proper mental as well as physical function (Popkin et al., 2010; Lieberman, 2007). Moreover, as shown in Fig. 1.1, some health problems are the aftereffects of water loss.

Fig. 1.1 Dehydration problems.

When the human body loses 1%–2% of body weight due to fluid loss, it can be defined as mild dehydration (Kleiner, 1999) and this condition can lead to problems such as CHD (coronary heart disease), functional impairments, and moderate dehydration. Although water is a very critical aspect in the survival of human beings, only a handful of countries accept water as a source of nutrition (Manz et al., 2002; Sawka et al., 2005; Popkin et al., 2010) and approaches to the water needs calculations are vague. The restricting factor for a generalization of the advocated water consumption is the total body water and dehydration variability. The water needs are impacted by many factors including the body size (Popkin et al., 2010), thirst mechanism (Forshee and Storey, 2003), gender, age, physical activity (Garriguet et al., 2008), climate (Sawka et al., 2005), food habits, and the level of respiration (Lieberman, 2007).

There is a need for creating better awareness about several factors that have an impact on the consumption levels of the beverage. A strong relation can be established between age and gender and total daily beverage intake and choices. For nutrition policy makers, a proper understanding of the differences in beverage consumption is very important. Past studies show that while drinking water is the prominent water source in all age groups’ diet (Garriguet, 2008; Garriguet, 2008; Bellisle et al., 2010; Barquera et al., 2008, 2010; Bello and Al-Hammad, 2006), variation can be seen in the intake of other beverages based on the age groups. Variations have been found in the beverage intake of adolescents and children with respect to age in several countries (Garriguet, 2008; Barquera et al., 2008; Bello and Al-Hammad, 2006).

Children’s preference is for drinking milk while soft drinks are the preferred beverage for adolescents (Storey et al., 2006), and adults also show great interest in taking alcoholic beverages and tea or coffee (Bellisle et al., 2010). According to EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), children (2–3-year-old boys and girls) must consume 1.3 L/day. In other words, the adequate intake (AI) of 2–3-year-old children should be 1.3 L/day. When it comes to children aged between 4 and 8 years, the AI needs to be 1.6 and 2.1 L/day, respectively, for boys aged between 9 and 13. For girls aged between 9 and 13, the AI has to be 1.9 L/day. As far as adolescents or adul...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Series Preface
• Preface
• 1: Preservatives in Beverages: Perception and Needs
• 2: Characteristics and Uses of Novel and Conventional Preservatives for Fruit Drinks and Beverages
• 3: Traditional Bio-Preservation in Beverages: Fermented Beverages
• 4: Nonconventional Preservation Techniques: Current Trends and Future Prospects
• 5: Emerging Nonchemical Potential Antimicrobials for Beverage Preservation
• 6: Natural Preservatives for Nonalcoholic Beverages
• 7: Nonthermal Preservation of Wine
• 8: Optimizing Beverage Pasteurization Using Computational Fluid Dynamics
• 9: Process and Impact of the Addition of Biocompounds on the Development of Pasteurized Healthy Juices
• 10: Preservation of Beverage Nutrients by High Hydrostatic Pressure
• 11: Prebiotics in Beverages: From Health Impact to Preservation
• 12: Processing Techniques or Mycotoxins—A Balancing Act of Food Safety and Preservation
• 13: Hydrocolloids as Emulsifiers and Stabilizers in Beverage Preservation
• 14: Detoxification and Sensing of Organophosphate-Based Pesticides and Preservatives in Beverages
• 15: Traditional Fermented Alcoholic Beverages of Rwanda (Ikigage, Urwagwa, and Kanyanga): Production and Preservation
• Index