*Article* **Effects of Cryoconcentrated Blueberry Juice as Functional Ingredient for Preparation of Commercial Confectionary Hydrogels**

**Nidia Casas-Forero 1,2,\* , Igor Trujillo-Mayol <sup>1</sup> , Rommy N. Zúñiga 3,4 , Guillermo Petzold 2,5 and Patricio Orellana-Palma 6,\***


**Abstract:** Hydrogels can absorb and/or retain components in the interstitial spaces due to the 3D cross-linked polymer network, and thus, these matrices can be used in different engineering applications. This study focuses on the physicochemical and textural properties, as well as bioactive compounds and their antioxidant activity stability of commercial hydrogels fortified with cryoconcentrated blueberry juice (CBJ) stored for 35 days. CBJ was added to commercial hydrogels (gelatin gel (GG), aerated gelatin gel (AGG), gummy (GM), and aerated gummy (AGM)). The samples showed a total polyphenol, anthocyanin, and flavonoid content ranging from 230 to 250 mg GAE/100 g, 3.5 to 3.9 mg C3G/100 g, and 120 to 136 mg CEQ/100 g, respectively, and GG and GM showed the lowest bioactive component degradation rate, while AGM presented the highest degradation. GG and GM samples could be stored for up to 21 days without significant changes, while the results indicated ≈15 days for the AGG and AGM samples. Thereby, CBJ offers enormous possibilities to be used as a functional ingredient due to the high nutritional values, and it allows enriching different hydrogel samples, and in turn, the structures of hydrogels protected components during in vitro digestion, enhancing the bioaccessibility after the digestion process.

**Keywords:** cryoconcentrated blueberry juice; hydrogels; stability; storage; bioactive compounds content; antioxidant activity
