Green extraction techniques from fruit and vegetable waste to obtain bioactive compounds—A review

Abstract

Food wastes imply significant greenhouse gas emissions, that increase the challenge of climate change and impact food security. According to FAO (2019), one of the main food wastes come from fruit and vegetables, representing 0.5 billion tons per year, of the 1.3 billion tons of total waste. The wastes obtained from fruit and vegetables have plenty of valuable components, known as bioactive compounds, with many properties that impact positively in human health. Some bioactive compounds hold antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties and they have the capacity of modulating metabolic processes. Currently, the use of fruit and vegetable waste is studied to obtain bioactive compounds, through non-conventional techniques, also known as green extraction techniques. These extraction techniques report higher yields, reduce the use of solvents, employ less extraction time, and improve the efficiency of the process for obtaining bioactive compounds. Once extracted, these compounds can be used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, or food industry, the last one being focused on improving food quality.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobial activity
• antioxidant activity
• food by-products
• food fortification
• food-loss
• food security
• non-conventional methods

Acknowledgements

All the authors thank McGill University, the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT), and the Institute of Financing and Information for Education (EDUCAFIN) for supporting the research.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT); Instituto de Financiamiento e Información para la Educación (EDUCAFIN).