Background:
In the ready-to-drink (RTD) green tea beverage market, the manufacturing process and product storage environment can cause green tea components to oxidize and turn brown, thus making it difficult to maintain a bright green color. Currently, attempts are being made to restore oxidized catechins to their original reduced state through a redox reaction by adding Vitamin C. However, the use of Vitamin C and/or other standard reducing agents alone often are unable to maintain/restore this bright green color.
Overview:
We are seeking materials or technologies (methods) that are effective in retaining the bright green color of RTD green tea. Specifically, we are interested in the following:
- Oxidized catechins are transformed into catechin compounds that exhibit a brown color through polymerization. Materials and technologies (methods) that prevent this polymerization are of interest and can utilize any mechanism (e.g., electrophilic or nucleophilic addition reactions).
- Materials and technologies (methods), beyond Vitamin C, that inhibit catechin oxidation or efficiently reduce oxidized catechins
- Other materials and technologies (methods) that may be effective in retaining the bright green color of green tea
Constraints:
- Materials and technologies (methods) must be used for food applications.
- Proposed materials or technologies (methods) may be at any stage of development, however supporting data or logical explanation/theory must be provided to indicate effectiveness for catechin specifically. For example, if a material or technology (method) applies to another polyphenol other than catechin, there must be a clear explanation as to why the same effect would be obtained with catechin.
- No significant effect on the taste and aroma of green tea.
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