Meeting Abstract
O-3
Nutritional properties of oat-based beverages as affected by processing and storage. H. ZHANG (1), G. Önning (1), R. Öste (2). (1) Biomedical Nutrition, Lund University; (2) Food Chemistry and Applied Nutrition, Lund University.
Oats is known for its compositional beta-glucan, which has been proven to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. As a new way of applying its healthy beneficial effect, oat-based beverages have been commercialized and shown to have cholesterol-lowering effects. However, during processing and storage of oat-based beverages, other nutritionally important components such as protein, lipids, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants might be negatively affected. To improve the understanding of such consequences, several investigations have been made. The retention of fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (including avenanthramides and hydroxycinnamic acids) has been followed in different beverage prototypes. Furthermore, the net protein utilization was investigated in rats. The bioavailability of iron from an oat-based prototype was also studied. Our data showed that the fatty acid profile changed only to a minor extent after the processing and storage for one year. Some of the native vitamins and minerals were lost in the processing and some of the vitamins were lost during the storage. Levels of antioxidants were generally decreased during the processing and refrigerated temperature favored the retention of avenanthramides in the iron-absent prototype without loss of the total antioxidant capacity. The protein quality in the oat beverage was as good as casein and wasn’t affected by the processing or by up to one year of room temperature storage. The iron absorption in humans was significantly improved by the combined techniques of iron supplementation, phytase treatment and addition of organic acids. These data indicated that the nutritional quality of UHT oat-based beverages can be further improved by optimized processing and storage conditions and that such information can be important for the food industry.