An oenological approach to increase the consumer acceptability of black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa L.) juice

The black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa L.) is a berry with exceptionally high concentrations of phenolic compounds with high antioxidative potential as well as high amounts of minerals, trace elements and vitamins. The health beneficial effect of aronia consumption was shown in several studies. Recently, these properties have made aronia a new domestic and, thus, sustainable ‘superfood’. However, in contrast to other products aronia juice lacks pronounced fruitiness, but shows distinct bitterness and astringency. These sensory properties are the limiting factors for a high consumer acceptability of aronia juice. In this study, we investigated the applicability of fining technologies to aronia juice with the aim to reduce the astringency and bitterness. Commercially available fining agents that are well established in wine technology were selected for these experiments. The effect of these measures was investigated by (i) HS SPME GC-MS to investigate the impact on volatile compounds, (ii) and UV-Vis spectrophotometry to follow the colour changes upon fining (iii) sensory analysis to evaluate the bitterness and astringency. Fining of aronia juice leads to a significant change in the aronia volatilome and a reduction of the monomeric polyphenols. Hence, fining results in changes on odour- as well as taste-active compounds and causes multimodal changes in the sensory perception