Phytochemical Profiling (Phenolics and Carotenoids) and Antioxidant Potential of Apple, Plum, Carrot, and Beetroot Juice Pomaces: Towards Sustainable Food Ingredients

Description

Juice factories throw away mountains of pomace — the pressed skins, seeds, and pulp of fruit and vegetables — or sell it cheaply as animal feed. Maria Simona Chiș and co-authors test whether pomaces from apple, plum, carrot, and beetroot could instead become valuable food ingredients. They dried and milled the pomaces into powders. Then they measured their nutrients, colours, plant chemicals, and antioxidant strength.

Each powder had its own strength. Carrot pomace was rich in orange carotenoids and minerals. Beetroot gave the most fibre plus red pigments useful as a natural colour. Plum showed the strongest antioxidant power, driven by its plant acids and pigments. Apple pomace offered a carbohydrate-rich base with its own useful acids. The results support turning these leftovers into functional ingredients, fitting a circular economy that wastes less. The study gives food makers a map of which pomace suits which job.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13605857