Chemical Constituents of Fruit Wines as Descriptors of their Nutritional, Sensorial and Health-Related Properties

Functional foods are foods that provide positive health effects apart from the provision of essential nutrients. Along with nutraceuticals, they represent the top trends in the food industry. Fruit wines are considered functional foods. When assessing the fruit wine quality, a wide range of descriptors are taken into consideration, namely physicochemical and sensorial properties of fruit wine. Furthermore, within the context of the new food products development (e.g. functional products), functional properties of fruit wines are also taken into consideration. Functional properties are determined by the content of the biologically active components, such as polyphenols, vitamins and micro- and macrominerals. It is also important to consider the food-safety issues regarding the fruit wines consummation, that is, the presence of pesticides, mycotoxins and biogenic amines in different fruit wines. This chapter aims to give an overview of various factors used to evaluate the quality and the functional properties of fruit wines