Processing fruits and vegetables results in high amounts of by-products (biodegradable waste). The management (utilization) of such by-products requires additional expenses and can have various negative impacts on the environment. On the other hand, plant origin by-products represents an abundant source of valuable nutrients – dietary fiber, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and microcomponents – polyphenols, organic acids, pigments and other bioactive compounds. Therefore, there is an urgent and important task to develop efficient technologies for converting various vegetable and fruit processing waste into value-added functional components. Another important task is to valorize isolated functional components by comprehensive evaluation of their chemical composition and properties as well as assessment of their applicability in the production of foods, food supplements and other preparations (e.g. cosmetic products).
During the project the biorefinery schemes of selected by-products will be developed and optimized, and the composition/properties of the separated fractions will be assessed by using the infrastructure of the Department of Food Science and Technology at KTU and the experience and competences of its scientists.).
Project funding:
This research project is funded by the European Social Fund according to the 2014–2020 Operational Programme for the European Union Funds’ Investments, under measure’s No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 activity “Promotion of postdoctoral fellowships studies”.
Project results:
2 articles in international journals with impact factor.
Period of project implementation: 2017-11-28 - 2019-11-27
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
