Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
19 WOODWARD HALL 9 EAST ALUMNI AVENUE
KINGSTON,RI 02881
Performing Department
Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Sc
Non Technical Summary
Functional beverages are rapidly growing in popularity worldwide largely driven by increasing consumer demand for natural and locally produced foods that contain ingredients which may impart potential health benefits. Maple sap (also known as maple water) is boiled to produce the natural sweetener, maple syrup. However, over the past 4-5 years, several companies in the United States and Canada have launched commerical maple water products as a 'new' functional beverage that is produced by packaging maple sap. The constituents of the natural maple water include macronutrients, micronutrients, and phytochemicals (so called 'phytonutrients') namely, sucrose and other polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, organic acids, phytohormones, and phenolic compounds. However, due to its largely 'watery nature (95-99%)', it is not surprising that once maple water is collected, it serves as a rich nutrient medium for the growth of microorganisms. Therefore, maple water would have to be pasteurized and/or sterilized to eliminate microbial growth before it is appropriate for human consumption as a commercial beverage. However, whether this practice is being extensively conducted in the industry is unknown. Furthermore, what products 'constitutes authentic' maple water is still unclear by the industry. Over the past decade, our group has conducted extensive chemical compositional studies on maple foods (sap, syrup, and sugar) and is strategically situated to investigate the quality, shelf-life, and authenticity of commercial maple water products. Our current proposal is highly responsive to the priorities of the Food Safety, Nutrition and Health Program Area, specifically, Improving Food Quality (Program Area Code A1361). The major objective of this Seed grant is to: 1) conduct compositional analyses of commercial maple water products available on the market to assess quality, shelf-life, and nutrient values. This project is a synergistic collaboration between the PD, Dr. Seeram and the major maple stakeholders in the United States and Canada. Our group has already published validated standard operating procedures on all of the chemical compositional assays of maple water products outlined in this Seed grant. Accomplishing the objectives of this project is relevant to the overall goal of the AFRI 2017 Foundational program of NIFA.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long term goal of this research project is to investigate the quality, shelf-life, and compositional standards of identity for what constitutes authentic maple water products sold commercially for human consumption. Maple water is acommercial functional beverage which is produced by packaging maple sap obtained from certain eastern North American maple species, mainly the sugar maple (Acer saccharum). The primary objective of the current application is to conduct compositional analyses of commercial maple water products available on the market to assess quality, shelf-life, and nutrient values. Over the past decade, our group has conducted extensive research on maple food products, including maple water (i.e. 'raw' maple sap that is pasteurized and/or sterilized and then packaged for commercial consumption), maple syrup (produced by boiling maple sap), and maple sugar (produced by crystallizing maple syrup).Therefore, our group is strategically situated with already established and published validated standard operating procedures for the chemical compositional analyses of maple water products.Overall, this project is expected to lead to the long-term improvement and sustainability of this economically important agricultural crop given that apart from Canada, the United States is the only other country in the world which produces maple water products for commercial consumption.
Project Methods
The analytical and compositional chemistry protocols used in this study will be performed according to validated and published standard operating procedures previously published by our research group (see below) and therefore detailed methods are not provided here. Each sample is analyzed in triplicate and data will be presented as mean + SD. Two-tailed unpaired Student's t-test will be used for statistical analyses of the data as previously reported. References for Protocols:1.Yuan T, Li L, Zhang Y, Seeram NP. Pasteurized and sterilized maple sap as functional beverages: chemical composition and antioxidant activities. Journal of Functional Foods. 2013;5(4):1582-1590.2. Yuan T, Seeram NP. Maple water. Handbook of functional beverages and human health; Eds: F. Shahidi and C. Alasalvar, CRC Press Boca Raton, FL, USA; 2016; Print ISBN: 978-1-4665-9641-2. eBook ISBN: 978-1-4665-9642-9. p. 757-766.