ReviewBioaccessibility of bioactive compounds from fruits and vegetables after thermal and nonthermal processing

- Thermal processing may increase/decrease bioactive compound's (BC) bioaccessibility.
- Nonthermal processing has adverse impact at the cellular level.
- Nonthermal processing affects cell wall material, and compounds in plant matrix.
- Growing interest in bioaccessibility, but no overall conclusion can be obtained.
- Appropriate technology selection and optimization depends on BC and plant matrix.

BackgroundThe growing demand for nutritious, healthy, and still attractive foods drives the future of food processing to be multipurpose and more sophisticated. Information and insight of the relation between thermal and nonthermal treatments (high pressure processing, high pressure homogenization, pulsed electric fields, etc.) with bioaccessibility of phytochemicals is important not only for researchers, but also for the food industry, thus giving opportunities to develop innovative healthy food products.Scope and approachThe food industry finds it crucial to develop processing technologies, which at the same time will preserve and improve the nutritive value of foods and make the contents of bioactive compounds bioaccessible. This review summarizes the effect of processing on matrices of fruits and vegetables, and consequently their impact on the bioaccessibility of desired bioactive compounds.Key findings and conclusionsNonthermal processing technologies can be used as useful tools to facilitate the release of micronutrients and bioactive compounds from the plant matrix during in vitro digestion process. This fact has the potential to improve their bioaccessibility, although the effects are cleary influenced by the food matrix, and the targeted compounds. For instance, there are examples within the literature that nonthermal methods can also decrease bioaccessibility of carotenoids from some plant foods. In conclusion, the use of these innovative technologies can be effective tools in the development of food products rich in bioactive compounds with improved bioaccessibility, but it is necessary to study in detail the food matrix as well as the targeted compounds and to optimize processing conditions.