One of the most beneficial aspects of pectin in beverages is its ability to aid in viscosity control, flavor release, suspension properties, improved body and mouthfeel of beverages.
The significant amount of dietary fiber in pectin can also help your digestive system function more efficiently. This fiber can also reduce cholesterol in your bloodstream.
Pectin’s Role in Beverages
While pectin in fruits and vegetables is familiar to most of us, it is also used as much in the production of beverages/smoothies/instant tea because the water used in beverages requires sugar. This is why pectin is rarely found in drinks like juice, nectars, clean label, no added sugar beverages, etc. However, as there has been a huge surge in the popularity of nutraceutical drinks like smoothies, no added sugar juice, high fiber drinks, smoothies, etc., pectin has become more popular for use as an ingredient in such products.
Pectin helps in the following property when added to fruit beverages:
- Control viscosity of the beverage
- Improves body and mouthfeel
- Improves flavor release
- Helps in a range of different viscosities
- Suspension properties to beverage
One of the advantages of using pectin for manufacturing beverages is that it does not contain any calories or sugars. This means that energy drinks made with pectin can be consumed without guilt, making them ideal for those who exercise.
Beverage companies have begun developing products with pectin in their formulations and psyllium husks to help claims like digestive, halal, vegan, heart health, antioxidant, etc.
The following are some of the benefits of using pectin in beverages:
1. Pectin is used to improve viscosity and mouthfeel in fruit juices. This is done by adding pectin in juice products in the manufacturing process, which produces a smooth taste without any off-flavor to it. In addition to making the taste of juices smoother and better, it has health benefits as well, such as reducing the risk of heart disease.
- Trendy concept for Healthy/Detox juices
- Flavor release & improved mouthfeel
- Controlled fluid and reversible gel formation
- Useful for unique relaxify juices
2. Pectin is also used in other fruit-processed products because it helps bind ingredients together, thus producing a homogeneous structure with the final product. This ingredient is often added to jams, jellies, marmalades, and acidified milk products because it gives them their different functional properties like flavor improvement, viscosity, etc.
3. Pectin is a good ingredient to use as a thickening agent because it thickens the liquid evenly, which makes it ideal for beverages.
4. Pectin is also good to use in the preparation of drinks because it prevents the beverage from being too watery. This is important because many of these drinks contain fruit concentrates and other ingredients that, when mixed with water, can cause syneresis.
Pectin also helps produce consumer-friendly low sugar beverages. Studies prove that juices can provide a great mouthfeel when you add pectin to your diet. Besides carbonated soft drinks, pectin is also used in low-calorie juices and teas. Pectin stabilizes the pulp in fruit juices and helps provide an excellent mouthfeel. At Novasol Ingredients, we help manufacturers take advantage of the Pectin ingredient in making their beverages more tasty yet healthy.
To know more about our expertise, reach us now, and let’s discuss how we can help you manufacture the right product.
