Abordagem biotecnológica para valorização de excedentes de hortofrutícolas em novos alimentos proteicos e funcionais.

One of the main objectives set by the European Union (EU) is obtaining a sustainable food chain by reducing food waste and producing new sustainable food. In order to deal with global food production, poverty, environmental issues and also nutritional and health problems, biotechnology presents as a powerful tool for developing new sustainable foods with increased nutritional value (Xing et al., 2020). Plant-based foods, including fruits and vegetables are important components of a healthy diet. However, Fresh fruits and vegetables may not be available all year round for consumption and their long-term storage could be challenging due to high water content, unavailability of cold-storage facilities and possibility of nutritional deterioration. Fruits and vegetables are the most used commodities among horticultural crops, but their processing residues are still generally infra-utilized and considered a low value material. Fresh and processing industries generate significant losses and wastes which are becoming a serious economic and environmental problem (Sagar et al., 2018). The project Green4Food aims to mitigate the losses of fruit and vegetables processing and distribution, by different strategies of their valorisation, including as major novelty the solid-state fermentation. The global goal of the project is to boost circular economy in the sector by developing new food products based in fruit and vegetables by-products (surplus or not adequate to be commercialized fresh and processing by-products) to respond to consumers expectations of “natural” and “foods with extra value” that is of the trends in the current food market. The project aims to develop strategies of reducing the sugar content and product fortification with various functional ingredients for enhancing the nutritional value of the vegetable products, thus contributing for the final increase of its marketability as a value-added product recognized as a functional food. The project includes the following specific goals: • Survey actualization on the by-products and surplus generated by horticultural processing units in the north region of MINHO in Portugal; • Optimization of preservation methods by dehydration (drying and lyophilization) of the samples collected (vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, cabbages, peas, etc. and fruit peels, such as pear, apple, citrus, and banana peels, among others); • Evaluation of biological treatments by solid-state fermentation of the by-products for the enhancement of the nutritional value (break down of the natural complex sugars into forms that are easier to digest, production of protein and healthy lipids, and liberation of bioactive compounds with anti-oxidant activity); increase of the shelf-life by production of organic acids and of the sensorial properties by flavors production; • Otimization of ecofriendly methods for bioactive compounds extraction from by-products, to obtain natural extracts with high anti-oxidant potential to be used as food supplement, among other applications. • Production of new plant-based food products with the treated horticultural by-products. Flours with dehydrated products fermented and non-fermented, and with the bioactive extracts to be applied as ingredients in soups, drinks and snacks. It is intended to perform a full characterization (nutritional value, sensorial trials and shelf-life) of the new food products, as well as a consumer’s acceptance test.