An overview of Brazilian smoothies: from consumer profile to evaluation of their physicochemical composition, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity and sensory description

Abstract

In this work, the smoothies produced in Brazil were assessed through their consumption profile, their chemical composition, antioxidant activity and their sensory descriptions. Of the 500 volunteers who participated in this work, 30% had never heard of smoothies. The regular consumers of smoothies were young, student and single women residing in the southern region of Brazil. Strawberry, banana and pineapple were the preferred flavours. The samples (n = 17) showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in the analytical parameters evaluated. Phenols (612–1.498 mgCAT/L), ascorbic acid (8.87–24.65 mgCQAE/L) and carotenoids (0.40–14.40 mg/L) showed high amplitude, resulting in differences of 4.9, 5.4, 11.3 and 7.6 times on the antioxidant activity of DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and CUPRAC, respectively. The flavour, residual taste, odour, colour intensity, particle presence, homogeneity, turbidity and viscosity were the main terms generated in the sensory description. These data can contribute to the development of new smoothies to better meet consumer expectations.