Stability and Enhancement of Berry Juice Color

Attractive color is one of the main sensory characteristics of fruit and berry products. Unfortunately, the color of red juices is unstable and easily susceptible to degradation, leading to a dull and weak juice color. This study was designed to investigate the color stability and copigmentation of four different berry juices enhanced by phenolic acids and commercial color enhancers. Phenolic acid enrichment improved and stabilized the color of the berry juices during storage. The commercial color enhancers immediately produced an intensive color to the juices, which, however, was not very stable. The color enhancement was intensive in strawberry and raspberry juices and effective in lingonberry and cranberry juices. Sinapic acid induced the strongest color in strawberry juice. Ferulic and sinapic acids improved raspberry juice color equally. Rosmarinic acid enhanced the color of lingonberry and cranberry juices the most. The addition of the simple cinnamic acids produced novel peaks to the end of the high-performance liquid chromatography chromatogram, indicating a formation of new compounds. It can be assumed that sinapic and ferulic acids formed new intramolecular copigmentation compounds with berry anthocyanins whereas rosmarinic acid stabilized anthocyanins intermolecularly. Keywords: Anthocyanins; phenolic acids; color enhancement; storage stability