Incorporating Dietary Antioxidants

  CROWDED shelves and the continued introduction of new products present food marketing and R&D professionals with a challenging task – how to make their products stand out. Product differentiation is a relatively simple idea if a product offers a strong benefit or is attractive to the consumer. This helps differentiate the product which could then make the consumer choose one product over another, as well as deliver repeat product purchase.
 These days a growing number of manufacturers are responding to consumer interest by turning to fortification, specifically combining multiple nutrients to differentiate products and to capitalise on scientific advances that allow companies to help improve consumer health and lower the risk of disease.
Beverages will have tremendous appeal to consumers of all ages, but in particular baby boomers, who are very much interested in wellness beverages. Today's technological developments in new ingredient application and processing methods, including the use of nanotechnology, microencapsulation and enteric coatings will enable beverage manufacturers to offer wide varieties of products containing antioxidant nutrients, as well as other functional ingredients that deliver optimum flavour, taste and mouth feel.
The ever-popular beverage category continues to generate innovative, cutting-edge concepts. Within the functional beverage category, 'added value' nutrients, particularly antioxidants, B-complex vitamins and some minerals along with herbal extracts, superfruits, omega-3, CoQ10 and prebiotics such as inulin, are now mainstream products that have been developed to meet specific health condition needs of a variety of consumer groups. Diet, age, exercise, UV light and other environmental factors affect the antioxidant status in the human body. The antioxidant defence includes a variety of interactive antioxidant system against free radicals, reactive oxygen species and pro-oxidants.

Free radicals
Atoms consist of positively charges nucleus and negatively charged electrons. Electrons orbit around the nucleus in pairs. When an electron from a pair is removed, the molecule becomes very reactive. A free radical is any chemical species capable of independent existence with one or more unpaired electrons and many free radicals are extremely reactive. Because most of the molecules in our body do not have unpaired electrons, free radicals steal electrons from normal molecules. This process, called oxidation, is the same process that causes apple slices to turn brown. Antioxidants are any substance that delays or inhibits oxidative damage to a target molecule. Antioxidants protect against damage from free radicals in several ways:

Prevent the formation of excess free radicals
Scavenge the free radicals after they are formed before they damage other molecules
Repair damaged molecules or replace them with new ones

Our cells can survive free radical attacks because they have developed antioxidant defences. A number of antioxidants working as a team make up these defences. Some antioxidants like enzymes and proteins are produced in the body. Others, like vitamin E, Vitamin C and phytochemicals (such as carotenoids and flavonoids) come from the diet.
It has long been known that people with diets rich in fruit and vegetables have lower incidence of heart disease. Since these foods are the richest sources of antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin C and carotenoids such as beta-carotene, scientists have facilitated many studies surrounding these nutrients and the possible ways in which they help to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease. The evidence for a protective effect is particularly strong for vitamin E. Several stuNike Sneakers