getpdf NLM PubMed Logo https://doi.org/10.17113/ftb.62.04.24.8418 Supplement         

Variation in Nutritional Quality of By-Products from Nine Organic Apple Cultivars

Elisabeta Elena Popa1#orcid tiny, Laurentiu Mihai Palade2#orcid tiny, Violeta Alexandra Ion3orcid tiny, Andreea Barbu3orcid tiny, Oana Crina Bujor3orcid tiny, Vlad Ioan Popa3orcid tiny, Paul Alexandru Popescu1orcid tiny, Amalia Carmen Mitelut1orcid tiny, Mihaela Cristina Draghici1orcid tiny, Mihaela Geicu-Cristea1orcid tiny and Mona Elena Popa1*orcid tiny

1Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 Marasti Blvd., Bucharest, Romania

2National Research & Development Institute for Food Bioresources-IBA Bucharest, 6 Dinu Vintila Street, District 2, 021102 Bucharest, Romania

3Research Center for Studies of Food Quality and Agricultural Products, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Romania

cc by Copyright © 2024 This is a Diamond Open Access article published under CC-BY licence. Copyright remains with the authors, who grant third parties the unrestricted right to use, copy, distribute and reproduce the article as long as the original author(s) and source are acknowledged.

Article history:

Received: 30 October 2023

Accepted: 8 October 2024

Keywords:

organic apple; apple by-products; nutritional quality of apple by-products; food waste reduction

Summary:

Research background. Recently, consumers have been increasingly interested in highly nutritional and health-promoting products in the form of functional foods that are produced using environmentally friendly processes as part of the circular economy. Therefore, much research has been carried out related to the valorisation of waste generated during the processing of food, especially fruit and vegetables, commonly referred to as by-products. These by-products consist of peels, seeds, stems or pomace, which have been shown to have valuable nutritional properties (high content of polyphenols, vitamins, antioxidants, etc.).

Experimental approach. Considering these aspects, the aim of this study is to characterise three types of by-products of apple processing, namely peel, pulp pomace and whole fruit pomace, from a nutritional point of view. The total content of polyphenols, antioxidant activity, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and phenolic content were determined in nine apple varieties from two harvest years (2020 and 2021) during 9 months of storage.

Results and conclusions. The results showed that apple peel had good nutritional properties, in contrast to the pulp or the whole fruit, which are often removed during apple processing. Therefore, the analysed by-products are suitable candidates for application in the food industry for the development of new products enriched with bioactive compounds.

Novelty and scientific contribution. In this study, nine varieties of organic apples were analysed and the nutritional parameters were determined. The phenolic compounds of the studied apple by-products were analysed for possible reuse of apple processing waste.

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#Both authors contributed equally to this manuscript