Turning Agri-Food Cooperative Vegetable Residues into Functional Powdered Ingredients for the Food Industry

Current food transformation processes must face the food waste issue by developingvalorization processes to reintroduce by‐products in the economic cycle and contribute to circulareconomy, generating social and economic value, and ensuring permanence of agricultural and ruralactivities. In the present paper, the results of a collaboration project between a regional agri‐foodcooperative and university are summarized. The project aimed to revalorize a series of vegetablewastes (carrot, leek, celery, and cabbage) from the fresh and ready‐to‐eat lines of the cooperative,by producing functional powders to be used as functional food ingredients. Vegetables residueswere successfully transformed into functional ingredients by hot air drying or freeze‐drying, andvariables such as storage conditions and grinding intensity prior to drying were considered.Twenty‐five vegetable powders were obtained and characterized in terms of physicochemical andantioxidant properties. Results showed that drying (mainly hot air drying) allowed obtaining stablepowders, with very low water activity values, and a significantly increased functionality. Vegetablewaste powders could be used in the food industry as coloring and flavoring ingredients, or naturalpreservatives, or either be used to reformulate processed foods in order to improve their nutritionalproperties.