Review of the effects of food processing and formulation on flavonol and anthocyanin behaviour Review Article

In spite of the growing interest over the last few years in flavonoids and their antioxidant capacity, little work has been devoted to investigate the effect of the processes on the structure and the activities of these molecules during processing and storage steps. Most of the studies concern the characterization and analyses of these compounds in raw materials before their processing. Flavonoids are sensitive to heat and to the physico-chemical environment; thus the steps of processing (heating, mechanical and domestic processes), of formulation (food matrix) and the storage period and conditions may lead to a degradation of the flavonoids and an alteration of their antioxidant properties. In this paper, we review the main studies describing the effects of processing, formulation and storage on flavonol and anthocyan content and we also report the models describing the degradation kinetics under a wide range of temperature and operating conditions.