** AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** ACROSS THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY, PRODUCERS ARE ATTEMPTING TO CREATE PRODUCTS THAT WILL BE CHOSEN BY CONSUMERS. THERE IS A TREND BY CONSUMERS TOWARDS GREATER FOOD AWARENESS, THUS INCREASING HEALTHIER OPTIONS. ONE EXAMPLE IS THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FOR BEVERAGES CONTAINING CALORIE FREE SUGARS WITHIN THE BEVERAGE MARKET. MANY BEVERAGE PRODUCERS ADD SUGAR TO DECREASE THE PERCEIVED ASTRINGENCY (ROUGHING AND DRYING) MOUTHFEEL WHICH CAN BE JUDGED NEGATIVELY BY CONSUMERS WITHIN PRODUCTS LIKE ICED TEAS AND JUICES. THIS INCREASE IN DEMAND IS DRIVEN BY KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGH SUGAR CONSUMPTION INCLUDING OBESITY, DENTAL HYGIENE, SUGAR ADDICTION AND INCREASED RISK OF CANCER. DUE TO THIS, COMPANIES IN THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRY HAVE BEEN WORKING AT REDUCING SUGAR WITHOUT LOWERING QUALITY. ONE WAY THAT COMPANIES HAVE MANAGED THE SUGAR CONTENT IN THEIR BEVERAGES IS BY CREATING, DIET VERSIONS OF PRODUCTS THAT TYPICALLY ADD ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS. WHILE THESE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS DO REDUCE THE CALORIES OF THE BEVERAGES, THEY CAN AFFECT HUMAN-GUT BIOME, METABOLISM AND NUTRIENT ABSORPTION INCREASING THE RISK OF OBESITY. SINCE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS DO NOT SOLVE THE DEMAND FOR HEALTHY BEVERAGES, PRODUCERS NEED INNOVATIVE WAYS TO REDUCE THE SUGAR CONTENT WITHOUT ALTERING THE QUALITY. PRODUCERS IN THE WINE INDUSTRY, USE AGING, IN A BARREL TO ULTIMATELY REDUCE ASTRINGENCY. THE KEY FACTOR IN THESE COMMON PRACTICES IS TO ALLOW FOR SLOW INGRESS OF OXYGEN WHICH CAUSES ETHANOL TO BE CONVERTED INTO ACETALDEHYDE (A GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE COMPOUND TO CONSUME). ACETALDEHYDE THEN REACTS WITH THE COMPOUNDS KNOWN FOR ASTRINGENCY (POLYPHENOLS, MORE KNOWN AS ANTIOXIDANTS) IN THE WINE, CAUSING A DECREASED ROUGHING AND DRYING MOUTHFEEL DUE TO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRODUCTS OF THE REACTION. BY ADDING ACETALDEHYDE TO ASTRINGENT BEVERAGES CONTAINING ANTIOXIDANTS, BEVERAGE PRODUCERS CAN REDUCE ASTRINGENCY WITHOUT HAVING TO ADD SUGAR, CREATING A MUCH HEALTHIER AND MORE ACCEPTED PRODUCT IN DIFFERENT CONSUMER MARKET SEGMENTS. IN THE FUTURE THIS COULD IMPACT THE ECONOMY BY HAVING THESE HEALTHY PRODUCTS MORE SOUGHT OUT BY CONSUMERS. THIS WORK WILL ALSO ALLOW SMALL COMMERCIAL WINERIES WHO ARE NOT ABLE TO AFFORD EXPENSIVE BARRELS, AN ALTERNATIVE TO DIVERSIFYING THEIR PRODUCTS CONSISTENTLY THROUGH ADDING ACETALDEHYDE TO THEIR WINE.THE INITIAL EXPERIMENTS IN THIS PROJECT WILL BE TRANSFERRING WORK DONE ON ADDING ACETALDEHYDE TO MODE WINE AND RED WINE TO CRANBERRY JUICE AND GREEN TEA. IN THESE PAST EXPERIMENTS WE WERE ABLE TO OBSERVE THE REDUCTION OF ACETALDEHYDE WITH THE ANTIOXIDANTS THROUGH MEASURING ACETALDEHYDE, ANTIOXIDANTS AND THE PRODUCTS. THIS REACTION WAS MONITORED OVER 3 WEEKS USING DIFFERENT AMBIENT TEMPERATURES TO DETERMINE REACTION RATES ULTIMATELY VIEWING A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE VARIABLES EXACTLY IN THE WAY WE EXPECTED. THESE WERE MEASURED USING AN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY METHOD THAT WAS OPTIMIZED WITHIN OUR LAB FOR DETERMINING THE PRODUCTS OF THE REACT,ION. THIS SAME EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN WILL BE CONDUCTED ON CRANBERRY JUICE AND GREEN TEA (BOTH HIGH IN ANTIOXIDANTS) WHERE WE EXPECT THE SAME RESULTS TO OCCUR. THIS EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN WILL ALSO BE USED AT A COMMERCIAL WINERY TO SEE IF IDENTICAL CONCLUSIONS CAN BE MADE AT A MUCH LARGER SCALE (55-GALLON TANKS). WE ALSO EXPECT THESE RESULTS TO BE SIMILAR TO PREVIOUS WORK WHERE WE SEE A INCREASE IN THE PRODUCTS OF THE ACETALDEHYDE-ANTIOXIDANT REACTION MOST LIKELY RESULTING IN A DECREASED ASTRINGENCY. FOLLOWING THIS ANALYTICAL WORK, A DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON THE ACETALDEHYDE ADDED COMMERCIAL WINE. FOR DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS, A PANEL OF 8-15 PARTICIPANTS WILL BE TRAINED TO MEASURE ATTRIBUTES INCLUDING ASTRINGENCY, BITTERNESS, SWEETNESS, RED FRUIT, BLACK FRUIT, ETC. TO DETERMINE QUANTITATIVE SENSORY CONCLUSIONS. WE ALSO WILL CONDUCT A CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE TEST USING AT LEAST 100 NON-TRAINED PANELISTS TO DETERMINE IF PEOPLE LIKE THE ACETALDEHYDE TREATED WINE BETTER THAN THE CONTROL. WITH THESE EXPERIMENTS WE EXPECT TO SEE A SIGNIFICANT DECREASE IN ASTRINGENCY WHILE ALSO HAVING A HIGHER ACCEPTANCE NUMBER FOR THE ACETALDEHYDE TREATED WINES. SINCE THE PRODUCTS OF THE REACTION BETWEEN ACETALDEHYDE AND ANTIOXIDANTS HAVE NOT BEEN COMPLETELY IDENTIFIED, WE PLAN ON ISOLATING AND DETERMINING THE STRUCTURE. TO DO THIS WE WILL USE ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY TO SEPARATE THE PRODUCTS FROM THE SOLUTION AND USE DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES TO UNDERSTAND THE STRUCTURE. THIS WORK IS IMPORTANT SINCE IT CAN GIVE FUTURE STUDIES A BASELINE FOR GETTING NUTRITION INFORMATION ABOUT THE CREATED PRODUCTS. ALL OF THESE RESULTS WILL BE COMMUNICATED TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY, BEVERAGE PRODUCERS AND WINERIES THROUGH SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS AT SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS AND A PROPOSED ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY WEBINAR SERIES AIMED AT GIVING COMMERCIAL WINEMAKERS NEW TOOLS FOR DIVERSIFYING THEIR PRODUCTS. THE ULTIMATE GOALS OF THE PROJECT WOULD BE TO GIVE BEVERAGE PRODUCERS AND WINERIES A NEW METHOD FOR REDUCING THE ASTRINGENCY (AKIN TO AGING), WITHOUT HAVING TO ADD SUGAR, IN CHEAPER AND MORE PREDICTABLE WAY THROUGH ADDING ACETALDEHYDE. THIS ALSO WILL ULTIMATELY AFFECT CONSUMERS BY HAVING MORE HEALTHY BEVERAGES ON THE MARKET CONTAINING ANTIOXIDANTS INCLUDING A REDUCTION OF THE ASTRINGENCY CHARACTERISTICS (NOT ACCEPTED BY EVERYONE) WITHOUT HAVING TO CONSUME A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF SUGAR