Ascorbic acid is the only bioactive that is better preserved by high hydrostatic pressure than by thermal treatment of a vegetable beverage.

Variations in levels of antioxidant compounds (ascorbic acid, total phenolics, and total carotenoids), total antioxidant capacity, and color changes in a vegetable (tomato, green pepper, green celery, onion, carrot, lemon, and olive oil) beverage treated by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) were evaluated in this work. The effects of HHP treatment, four different pressures (100, 200, 300, and 400 MPa) and four treatment times for each pressure (from 120 to 540 s) were compared with those of thermal treatment (90-98 °C for 15 and 21 s). High pressure treatment retained significantly more ascorbic acid in the vegetable beverage than thermal treatment. However, no significant changes in total phenolics were observed between HHP treated and thermally processed vegetable beverage and unprocessed beverage. Color changes (a*, b*, L, chroma, h°, and ΔE) were less for pressurized beverage than thermally treated samples compared with unprocessed beverage.