Researchers from the Center for Nutrition Research, Institute for Food Safety and Health, Illinois and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have found that adding milk to fruit drinks can significantly reduce the antioxidant capacity of the drink.
The team made up drinks containing strawberry powder with and without milk to investigate if milk proteins would reduce the “bioactivity” of the drink. This has previously been demonstrated in tea and blueberries. The team also found processing by high pressure instead of heat reduced the loss of phenolics and antioxidant activity.
The article is available ahead of print from the Journal of Agriculture and food science website.