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This paper aims to investigate the attraction of cannabis-infused soft drinks beverages among young Canadian consumers in the wake of a rise in multimodal cannabis consumption. It is an area of accelerated growth potential, with little research data currently available, and findings would inform stakeholders in the soft drinks market. The research participants were all university students in Ontario province, Canada.

Random convenience sampling data collection techniques were used to gather data from the Ontario-based participants. Reliability, factors loading and multiple regression analysis were administered to understand the impact of factors towards positive attitude.

The results reveal that price, impulsive personality, social insecurity and social norms all have a positive influence towards positive attitude. However, energy, taste and past experience failed to show any relationship with positive attitude. The results suggest that the individual consumer’s personality and social context have greater influence than price, a useful insight into the market trends for stakeholders within the industry.

The use of convenience sampling, due to the potentially sensitivity nature of the area of study, hinders the use of a sampling frame.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine positive attitude with respect to cannabis-infused soft drinks among young consumers in Canada. It is of particular interest to stakeholders in the production and marketing sectors of the global beverage industry, and its findings will help inform this fledgling wing of that industry on how to move forward through the unknown territory with regard to consumer motivations.

Increasingly, interest in and the uptake of herbal infusions has advanced, namely, owing to their bioactive properties and potential links to health. Given this, the purpose of the present review was to collate evidence from human trials for five popular herbal infusions.

The systematic review comprised ten human trials (560 participants), investigating inter-relationships between herbal infusions consumption and health. Only human studies involving German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L. Asteraceae), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe Zingiberaceae), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L. Lamiaceae), peppermint (Mentha x spicata L. Lamiaceae)/spearmint (Mentha spicata L. Lamiaceae) and rosehip (Rosa canina L. Rosaceae) teas were included in the present paper.

Most herbal infusions serve as a good source of flavonoids and other polyphenols in the human diet. Studies included in this paper indicate that herbal infusions (1-3 cups tended to be drank daily; infusion rates up to 15 min) could benefit certain aspects of health. In particular, this includes aspects of sleep quality and glycaemic control (German chamomile), osteoarthritic stiffness and hormone control (spearmint), oxidative stress (lemon balm) and primary dysmenorrhea (rosehip).

Ongoing research is needed using homogenous herbal infusion forms, brewing rates and volumes of water to further reinforce these findings. In the meantime, herbal infusions could provide a useful supplementary approach to improving certain aspects of well-being.

The present paper collates evidence from human trials for five popular herbal infusions.

This study has two aims: first, to develop a conceptual model for infused drinks innovation using the subjective norm and lifestyle as predictors; and second, to adapt the beverage science experimental variables and assess young consumers' experience of the taste, mood and health of infused drinks using the moderated mediation method.

Using quota sampling, the data were collected from three faculties in a private university. The conceptual model was developed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The model was validated by the first‐ and second‐order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of SEM. The multi‐dimensional variables of the taste, mood and health of the infused drinks were computed by the moderated mediation process and the final mediation effects were confirmed using Aroian tests.

The subjective norm and lifestyle variables predict innovation in infused soft drinks. The results from the moderated mediation analyses indicate that both male and female young consumers prefer the innovation of drinks to suit local tastes and be produced locally; the drinks should also have health and well‐being benefits.

The sample size of 350 students was sufficient but the generalisability of the result was limited by the students being recruited from one university.

Parents may influence their children to change their favourite drinks if they are expensive. For this reason, the pricing strategy is important to price‐sensitive consumers. Offering favourite infused drinks to friends is often part of the lifestyle in Malaysia. In practice, implied recommendation is possible. If this happens, there is the likelihood that it may be communicated through the social network. Marketers should use this platform for promoting new drinks. Beverage innovators should learn from the local popular infused drinks as the baseline for drinks innovation and should innovate to suit local tastes. In particular, beverage manufacturers should consider satisfying the market segmentations for flavour lovers and health seekers. Lastly, for effective soft drinks advertising, it is recommended that beverage marketers should use trendy components in promotions.

The study highlights the possibility of conducting social research by incorporating variables from experimental studies. By using this method, external validation is possible when the measures are applied in an uncontrived setting. In addition, it could provide a better assessment of consumers' needs for product innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the total phenol content (TP) and total flavonoid content (TF) fluctuations in different infusions of lemon verbena. Dried leaves were harvested in May, July and October and prepared at various soaking times (5-20 min).

The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to determine TP, while TF was determined by the aluminum chloride method.

According to the results, the July harvest had the highest content of TP and TF, followed by May and October. Temperature and soaking time play a role in the proportion of released phenols and flavonoids (p < 0.05), whereas the content in continuous infusion is higher than infusion (without boiling) .TP and TF in infusion increase until 20 min, while concentration is convergent in continuous infusion after10 minutes, where no significant difference is seen. In the flowering stage, TP is close in comparison with the vegetative stage.

Harvest time plays a role in the content, so it is best to prepare infusion from lemon verbena before the flowering period, when people drink it, as the results show. According to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work that studied the variation in phenol and flavonoid content during different stages of growth with soaking time in drenched lemon verbena leaves.

Food waste has received attention during the last decade, especially due to its environmental and social impacts. An important contributor to food waste is consumers’ low preference for purchase fruits and vegetables with unusual appearance, products with damaged package and products close to the expiration date, technically called suboptimal food products. Researches show that consumers tend to reject these products when buying food, increasing avoidable food waste. However, consumer considerations when deciding to buy or not to buy suboptimal food are still unknown. The purpose of this paper is to use two different approaches to investigate consumers’ perceptions towards suboptimal food and how they impact their acceptance.

The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of participants’ open-ended responses (282 answers), where participants were asked to write down the impressions they had about three suboptimal food images. The second phase explored consumers acceptance of suboptimal food through a focus group discussion.

Results reveal that considerations about suboptimal food are divergent, with some participants rejecting them because they are impelled to search for perfection when buying food products. However, some individuals are disposed to accept suboptimal products, mainly because they have concern with the environment and cook abilities.

As a whole, this study contributes for food waste reduction strategies and has implications for marketing actions.

Tea contains high content of phenolics which are well-known to act as antioxidants. As such, there are claims that the consumption of infusion of tea could help ameliorate free radical-induced diseases; this therapeutic activity would depend on the amount of phenolics that is soluble and the amount that is absorbed and available for metabolic activity when consumed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of phenolics and antioxidant activity of some health tea and also to study the effect of addition of sugar and milk on in-vitro availability of phenolics in tea, cocoa and coffee drinks.

Seven brands of health tea, two brands of cocoa drink, one brand each of coffee, powdered milk and sugar were selected. The tea samples were analyzed for pH, titratable acidity, total phenol and antioxidant activity using Folin–Ciocalteau and 202-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazil 28DPPH-29-20 reagents. In-vitro simulated digestion modeling stomach and small intestine were carried out on tea infusion, coffee and cocoa drinks with or without sugar, and phenolic availability was analyzed.

The result indicated that pH, titratable acidity and total phenolics ranged from 4.5 to 5.6, 0.167 to 0.837 (as maleic acid) and 1.15 to 1.17 mg/g gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Black tea recorded the highest phenolic content, in-vitro phenolic availability and antioxidant activity. Addition of sugar to black tea and chocolate drink caused a significant decrease in the in-vitro available phenolics, while the addition of milk leads to a significant enhancement.

The data obtained in this study can be used nutritionally and commercially to show the impact of adding sugar or milk on the content of phenolics and their bioavailability in-vitro. The study justifies the claim that tea could help ameliorate free radical-induced health defects.

Assessment of antioxidant activity of food should not be based only on the content of total phenolics but on the amount that is bioavailable in the body system when the food is consumed.

Consumption of tea, cocoa and coffee drinks with milk and sugar have been found to enhance or inhibit phenolics. Therefore, the optimum level of these additives should be determined if the drinks were meant for therapeutic purposes.

Results obtained may provide some useful information for considering the bioavailability of phenolics present in tea and beverages in view of consumption/digestion in our body as well as interference of sugar and milk as the additives.

There are many variations of brewing techniques which can impact both flavor and chemistry of the brew significantly. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand and identify the most common conditions used among a relatively large sample of worldwide tea consumers for preparing tea drinks.

An electronic questionnaire was formed via Google Drive^© and distributed publicly online from 12 November 2014 to 9 January 2015. It contained 18 questions divided into sections. The valid answers received from 2,690 person were coded and statistically analyzed using SPSS 20.0 to calculate the frequencies, categorize the data into observed variables by using cross-tabulation and compare the observed data with the author expectations by using the chi-square test technique. Results were presented as (frequency; percent).

The results showed that a lot of tea-drinking respondents add sugar to their drink (2,242; 87.4 per cent). The great majority of respondents would drink their tea with additives (natural flavoring) (1,814; 70.7 per cent). Furthermore, there was a significant association between the number of tea drinkers and their gender and country of residence (p < 0.05), while the age of the respondents was not a significant factor affecting tea drinking. The same was observed about the association between number of people using additives and their gender, country of residence and age. Most of the participants thought that adding sugar would decrease tea’s health benefits, while adding some natural flavoring would increase it.

These most common conditions used among tea consumers can guide further conducted researches on tea drink to have more impact on people’s ways and understanding of different tea infusion preparations.

Eating and drinking temporarily suppress the desire to eat and/or the desire to drink. These satiating effects are learned responses to complex patterns of stimulation from available foods and drinks and the external and internal environments. Considers the possible roles of physiological actions of ingested foods and beverages in the signals from the body which contribute to the sense of repletion, the dulling of hunger and the quenching of thirst.

The purpose of this paper was to determine total polyphenols (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in five commercial tea extracts and in their infusions at various temperatures (95-60°C) and brewing times (5-30 min).

TP was determined by the Folin–Ciocalteu method, TF by the aluminium chloride colorimetric method and EGCG by HPLC method.

The results showed that White tea – Silver needle had the highest content of TP and EGCG when extracted, but its infusions had very poor concentrations of these compounds. Green tea infusion was better source of TP and EGCG than white or black tea, although its extract did not contain a very high amount of TP compared to the latter two types. Black tea extract had a relatively high content of TP and TF in its extract. Its infusions as well contained higher concentrations of TP than white tea, but lower concentrations of EGCG than all studied teas.

Increasing infusion time and temperature does not necessarily increase the concentration, according to the results. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report on comparing these types of tea, especially the white tea, with other well-known teas under various infusion conditions. The extraction of the white tea leaves was also not found in previous works.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate in vivo the bioavailability of the Ilex paraguariensis polyphenols due to total polyphenols and changes in antioxidant capacity (AOC) in human plasma after an acute intake of 300 ml of an infusion of yerba maté (YM) for 120 minutes. Also, we evaluated the variation of plasma protein or plasma uric acid after the acute intake of YM infusion.

Seventeen healthy young volunteers participated in the determining plasma of total polyphenols concentration (TPC, Folin-Ciocalteu method), plasma AOC for ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 2,2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid diammonium salt [ABTS] methods), plasmatic uric acid and plasma total protein over the 120 minutes test.

It was found that the bioavailability of YM polyphenols during 120 minutes was 49.3 ± 11.9 per cent, the TPC was increased to 6.0 ± 1.5 per cent, the plasma AOC was increased by FRAP 8.3 ± 3.3 per cent and by ABTS 6.0 ± 2.0 per cent and no significant variation of plasma protein or plasma uric acid was found.

Maté polyphenols has a thrifty effect on the natural antioxidant defenses of the body, which are beneficial to human health.

There was no information on the bioavailability of polyphenols in YM infusions prepared in its traditional form as “hot mate”.