Bioaccessibility and transepithelial transportation of cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus) phenolics: Effects of non-thermal processing and food matrix

The present study investigated the effects of non-thermal treatments and food matrix on the bioaccessibility and transepithelial transportation of phenolics from cranberrybush. High pressure processing (HPP) was applied at 600 MPa pressure for 5 min, whereas pulsed electric field (PEF) conditions were selected as 5 (PEF5) or 15 kJ/kg (PEF15). To reveal the influence of food matrix, cranberrybush juice was blended with bovine or almond milk. Results showed that PEF15 treatment enhanced the recovery of total flavonoids (TFC; increase of 3.9% ± 1.1), chlorogenic acid (increase of 29.9% ± 5.9) and antioxidant capacity after gastrointestinal digestion. The addition of bovine milk affect posivitely the bioaccessibility of total phenolics (TPC), TFC and antioxidant capacity. While untreated and treated samples exhibit comparable transportation across the epithelial cell layer, juice-bovine milk (JM) and juice-almond milk (JA) blends increased the transport efficiency of chlorogenic acid by 3.5% ± 0.8 and 3.3% ± 0.5, respectively.