ABSTRACT
Fruits and vegetables contain many health-promoting factors such as ber and large amounts of minerals, vitamins, avonoids, and phenolic acids. Epidemiological evidence suggests that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help in the protection of coronary heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic diseases (Margetts and Buttriss, 2003; Dai et al., 2006; Ruxton et al., 2006). Most fruits, however, are rather fragile or perishable, deteriorating due to the action of heat or during transportation, which restrains both their commercialization and their application in the food industry. Another relevant aspect is the seasonal character of some fruits, which limits their production to some months of the year. The industrial processing of fruits into juices and pulps constitutes an alternative for enabling their production,
storage, and transportation, which, in turn, can increase their application in the food industry. Furthermore, juices can be consumed more conveniently than whole fruits, which certainly plays an important role, since many people, especially those with a busy lifestyle, would rather take a supplement or pill than consume more fruits or vegetables to have a healthier diet (Mullen et al., 2007).
