According to research by members of the Food Color and Quality Laboratory of the University of Seville, one of the industrial processes for treating orange juice improves its healthy properties.
It sounds strange to mere consumers, but these nutritionists have found that deep-freezing such juices are subjected to increases the bioavailability of their carotenoids, pigments of vegetable origin that animals transform into vitamins after ingesting them (and hence their importance nutritional).
What’s so positive about this? Carotenoids are beneficial health compounds. And the concept of bioavailability refers to the speed and amount with which a substance is absorbed by the body’s tissues and organs. The higher the bioavailability of a good substance for the body, the better. And that of carotenoids in frozen orange juices improves, according to the work of scientists from the University of Seville.
The two faces of the cold
Cold treatments from the food industry degrade carotenoids, but improve their bioavailability, so they can compensate. For their work, the researchers used fresh-squeezed orange juices, pasteurized juices, and deep-frozen juices that were defrosted with a microwave or left in the fridge.
The analyzes found that the carotenoids in the thawed juices had a higher bioavailability than those of the fresh ones, so that the drinks were healthier.
The scientists focused on phytoene and phytofluene, two colorless carotenoids that rank among the most beneficial. They discovered that freezing reduced their numbers in orange juice, but also that it destroyed many other particles and cellular material in the liquid, so that they ended up being easier to absorb through the intestinal walls, despite being less numerous than in the juice. cool.
The researchers state that “fresh juice has the highest concentration of carotenoids, but this does not mean that it is the one that most increases the level of carotenoids in the blood and tissues.” As one of the authors of the study, Antonio Jesús Meléndez, professor at the University of Seville, says, “consumers tend to believe that treated juices are less healthy than natural ones, but our study shows that this is not the case as regards to the carotenoids absorbed by the body ”.
