Packaging effects on highly nutritional value beverage obtained by a mix of typical sicilian fruits in accelerated storage

Consumers’ knowledge has been improved and now they are aware of the importance of consuming healthy food. They know how food and beverages are linked with the proper functioning of their body, so are always more drawn towards consuming healthy products with high nutritional value. The new challenge for soft drink producers is the increasing interest in high nutritive quality products. Therefore such high-quality fruit juice is required to meet consumer needs, but also to ensure safety aspects in order to prolong shelf life. The aim of this research was to understand the most suitable packaging through experimental research to preserve over time the chemical-physical characteristics of a beverage with a high nutritional value obtained by mixing blood orange, pomegranate, and prickly pear juices. The three types of stand-up pouches tested were respectively transparent packaging (PT) (PET/OPA/PE), metalized packaging (PM) (PET/ALU/PET/PE), and totally recyclable packaging (PR) (OPP/OPP/PP). On stand-up pouches, weight loss (%), color intensity, browning index (BI), anthocyanin content (mg/L), total phenols, antioxidant activity (%), and flavonoids were monitored during storage at +45 ◦C, 65 % RH for accelerated ageing. Results have shown that PR performances were good, it kept high qualitative characteristics among the packaging tested it is the advisable best packaging solution because it certainly offers a valid alternative in terms of performance and a lower environmental impact compared to PM or to traditional packaging (glass), thus representing a more sustainable, effective and innovative choice.