As well as being naturally sweet and delicious, berries also provide abundant vitamins, minerals and plenty of bioactive goodies such as flavonoids, phenolics, anthocyanins and phenolic acids,[1] so it’s no wonder why they make up an increasing proportion of fruit consumed in our diet. In addition to snacking on fresh berries, new research now suggests that condensing them into berry jams could be another good way to spread their benefits.
The research published in the Antioxidants[2] journal measured the antioxidant activity of five berry jams – including blackberry, blueberry and raspberry varieties. Analysis showed that the berry jams had strong nutrient and antioxidant properties which was mainly attributed to their high levels of total phenolics, flavonoids and anthocyanins.
Authors from the journal concluded that jams could be another way to obtain the nutritional and bioactive benefits of eating berries. This means that making jam is one of the best ways to use berries which are close to their use by date due to their nourishing properties, low production costs and food waste avoidance.
Dr Emma Derbyshire, Public Health Nutritionist and adviser to British Berry Growers commented; -“This is really interesting new research. We know about the nutritional and bioactive benefits of eating fresh berries and the good news is that these benefits seem to transition across into berry jams too.
“We only need a small amount of jam to obtain the condensed goodness from the berries. As berries are naturally sweet, added sugar is often not needed as lower sugar pectin, for example, can be used to thicken jams instead.
“Berry jams are also a great way to avoid food waste. If berries are beginning to soften in the fridge it’s a good idea to used them up and convert them into something else, such as a jam.”
[1] Nile SH & Park SW (2014) Edible berries: bioactive components and their effect on human health. Nutrition 30(2):134-44.
[2] Diaconeasa Z et al. (2019) Phytochemical Characterization of Commercial Processed Blueberry, Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Cranberry, and Raspberry and Their Antioxidant Activity. Antioxidants (Basel) 8(11). pii: E540.