Vitamin C, vitamin A, phenolic compounds and total antioxidant capacity of new fruit juice and skim milk mixture beverages marketed in Spain

The growing interest in new functional foods with special characteristics and health properties has led to the development of new beverages based on fruit juice-skim milk mixtures. The proliferation of ready-to-drink beverages has caused the market to focus its interest on these products. Commercial conventionally pasteurized or sterilized beverages based on a mixture of fruit juice and skim milk were evaluated nutritionally for their concentrations of vitamin C, vitamin A and phenolic compounds and their total antioxidant capacity, taking the influence of physicochemical parameters into account. The main contribution to the total antioxidant capacity (TEAC, trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity) was provided by vitamin C, followed by phenolic compounds, in accordance with a mathematical equation obtained from the data: TEAC = -0.184 + 0.009 * [vitamin A] + 0.011 * [phenolic compounds] + 0.058 * [vitamin C] The R-squared value was 86.88%. Citrus fruits, such as lemons or oranges, were the fruits associated with the greatest antioxidant capacity in the samples analysed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.