Funky food from fruit by-products

Reusing the by-products of fruit and cereal processing could help promote the sustainability of the food industry, as long as its overall environmental fingerprint is clearly evaluated.
Food processing of cereal and fruits creates a rather voluminous amount of by-products. The London, UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers recently estimated that anywhere between 35% and 50%--or 1.2 to 2 billion tons--of all food produced is wasted worldwide; a fraction of which is due to by-products in food processing. To remedy this situation, some scientists saw an opportunity to develop eco-efficient, innovative and sustainable processes to create new, food or feed products from such left-overs. These include healthy, ‘ready-to-eat’ fruit pastes, juices and crunchy citrus-flavoured, vanillin enriched snacks.

This approach is the focus of an EU-funded research consortium dubbed the NAMASTE project, working in collaboration with Indian partners. “We [have], so far, developed and assessed procedures [to obtain] some bioactive molecules and ingredients and … for [evaluating] quality … in the formulation of new food products,” says Fabio Fava, the project’s EU scientific coordinator. He is also a professor of industrial and environmental biotechnology at the University of Bologna, Italy. The project focuses in particular on wheat bran and citrus by-products, in Europe. In India, it targets rice bran, mango and pomegranate by-products.

The project has already yielded some concrete results. The Indian coordinating institution, the North East Institute of Science and Technology in Jorhat, Assam province, for example, has formulated 15 types of carp and ornamental fish feed. Other partners in India have also developed jams, biscuits and a health drink whereas snack rolls are also on the menu in the near future. In parallel, European colleagues have produced highest purity vanillin from agro-industrial by-products of bran processing containing ferulic acid. Others investigate how wheat bran could be turned into extruded and breakfast snacks. Using the by-products of citrus-based processing, EU scientists are also investigating the possibility of creating fruit-based beverages.

For some experts, the question remains whether, from an environmental perspective, this is the best way to give value to food processing by-products. “This question can be answered according to the cascading principle, where the best option is that which harnesses maximum value from the by-products,” says Frances Fortuin, senior project manager at the Dutch consultancy Food Valley NL, located in Wageningen.

More details can be found at the following link: https://cordis.europa.eu/wire/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.Detail&rcn=36187