Valorization of by-products from Prunus genus fruit processing: Opportunities and applications

Abstract

Food processing, especially the juice industry, is an important sector that generate million tons of residues every. Due to the increasing concern about waste generation and the interest in its valorization, the reutilization of by-products generated from the processing of popular fruits of the Prunus genus (rich in high-added value compounds) has gained the spotlight in the food area. This review aims to provide an overview of the high added-value compounds found in the residues of Prunus fruits (peach, nectarine, donut peach, plum, cherry, and apricot) processing and applications in the food science area. Collective (pomace) and individual (kernels, peels, and leaves) residues from Prunus fruits processing contains polyphenols (especially flavonoids and anthocyanins), lipophilic compounds (such as unsaturated fatty acids, carotenes, tocopherols, sterols, and squalene), proteins (bioactive peptides and essential amino acids) that are wasted. Applications are increasingly expanding from the flour from the kernels to encapsulated bioactive compounds, active films, and ingredients with technological relevance for the quality of bread, cookies, ice cream, clean label meat products and extruded foods. Advances to increasing safety has also been reported against anti-nutritional (amygdalin) and toxic compounds (aflatoxin and pesticides) due to advances in emerging processing technologies and strategic use of resources.

Keywords:

• Amygdalin
• anthocyanins
• encapsulation
• films
• functional foods
• polyphenols
• valorization

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

Thanks to GAIN (Axencia Galega de Innovación) for supporting this publication (grant number IN607A2019/01). Paulo E. S. Munekata acknowledges postdoctoral fellowship support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN, Spain) “Juan de la Cierva” program (IJC2020-043358-I).