Industrial multi‑fruits juices by‑products: total antioxidant capacity and phenolics profle by LC–MS/MS to ascertain their reuse potential

Many food formulations use fruits as their main component generating, in most cases, a large portion of fruits by-products which are generally considered as food waste. These by-products, due to its varied composition of active compounds, must be discarded in a responsible and ecological manner by the food industries, which can increase the fnal cost of the food formulation. The compounds present in this by-products can be useful to the food industry due to their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities and, its reuse is important to establish a circular economy in the food industry. In this study, the anti oxidant potential of ethanolic extracts of fruit by-products was evaluated. Also, the principal phenolic compounds of these by-products were determined by HPLC–DAD and HPLC–ESI–MS/MS. The formulation 1 (F1) of juice by-products was composed by the by-products of the juice prepared with ginger and apple (50:50, w/w) and the formulation 2 (F2) of juice by-products was made up of the by-products of the juice prepared with apple, carrot, beet and ginger (50:29:20:1, w/w). The extracts obtained from the freeze-dried by-products presented higher antioxidant capacity and higher amounts of phenolic compounds, namely favonoids, that the extracts obtained from the fresh by-products. Also, the extracts obtained from F1 presented a higher antioxidant capacity than the extracts from F2, mostly due to its high content in ginger. The obtained results from the diferent assays are in agreement among them and indicate that the F1 extract is the most suitable candidate to be applied to food applications and, active food packaging due to its high antioxidant capacityThis work was carried out in the frame of the VIPACFood project. This project is funded by ARIMNet2 (Coordination of Agri cultural Research in the Mediterranean; 2014–2017), an ERA-NET Action fnanced by the European Union under the Seventh Frame work Programme. In Spain this action is co-funded by the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (MINECO-INIA) ref. APCIN2016-00061-00-00. Cássia H. Barbosa is grateful for her research grant in the frame of the VIPACFood pro ject (ARIMNET2/0003/2016). Mariana Andrade and Fernando Ramos would like to thank the INTERREG V A Spain-Portugal Programme (POCTEP) through the project 0377_IBERPHENOL_6_E regard ing the phenolic compounds part. The work was also supported by UIDB/00211/2020 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds. Mariana Andrade is also grateful for her research grant (SFRH/BD/138730/2018) funded by the Foundation for Science and Technol ogy (FCT)