Leadership in Production: A Case Study of Soft Drinks

This article is devoted to the leadership trends in production of soft drinks in Russia. Specifically, it provides a comprehensive study of the usage of raw materials for the development of recipes of Russian national drinks of an antioxidant orientation. Traditional Russian beverages which include natural ingredients (honey, spices, and herbs) take one of the leading places on the market of soft drinks. Therefore, the development of nonalcoholic beverages based on local plant raw materials is one of the promising directions for expanding the range and increasing the nutritional value of beverages. The aim of the work is scientific justification of the formulation and technology of sbitens of antioxidant orientation on the basis of vegetable raw materials in Sverdlovsk Region and their evaluation. The paper presents the composition of biologically active components of plant raw materials of the Ural region, used in the development of compositions of sbitens “Forest Fairy Tale.” The objects of the study are rose hips (lat. Frūctūs Rosae), nettle (lat. Urtíca dióica), raspberry leaf (lat. Folia Rubi idaei), oregano ordinary (lat. Oríganum vulgáre), yarrow (lat. Achilléa millefólium), thyme (lat. Thymus serpyllum L), a leaf of bearberry (lat. Arctostáphylos úva-úrsi), apples of Ural selection (lat. Málus), and the fruits of mountain ash (lat. Fructus Sorbi aucupariae). Sbitens with high antioxidant activity were scientifically proven. The determination of antioxidant activity of the beverages was carried out by the potentiometric method based on the “chemical interaction of antioxidants with a mediator system, which uses a mixture of K3[Fe(CN)6]/K4[Fe(CN)6]”. There was determined the dependence of the organoleptic and physicochemical parameters of sbitens from the quantity of vegetable raw materials, the optimal correlation of fruit, and medicinal and technical raw materials. The safety of biologically active substances in the developed sbitens was studied. High stability of bioactive compounds during storage (with the necessary margin of safety) was observed. By the end of the storage period, the content of ascorbic acid in the drink is 47% of the original, which allows meet the daily requirement of only 45.2%. The content of catechins is 69% of the original, which meets the daily requirement of 70%. This allows recommending sbitens as a restorative beverage of antioxidant orientation for all categories of consumers. The dynamics of changes in consumer properties during production and storage of products was studied, thus establishing the regulated quality parameters and determining the shelf life which is 6 months.