Fruits and vegetable processing industries contribute to the largest portion of food waste. With changing diet habits, the demand for the production and processing of fruits and vegetables has increased greatly to fulfil the rising demand amongst the masses. Waste generation begins from the harvesting of raw material until it gets processed. Pineapple processing industries produce processing waste (peel, core, pomace, and crown) which are rich in various bioactive compounds. In most cases, the by-products contain larger amounts of valuable compounds which have higher nutritional and therapeutic importance than its final produce. Researchers have studied the potential of pineapple wastes primarily for the extraction of enzymes (bromelain, pectinase, xylanase and cellulase) and secondarily as a low-cost substrate to produce dietary fibre, organic acids, and phenolic antioxidants. This review describes the bioactive compounds in pineapple wastes, their extraction techniques, and their potential applications as a polymer material, bio-sorbents, bioethanol and vanillin production, etc. It focuses primarily on bioactive compounds that have functional and medicinal value and can be used independently or incorporated with other ingredients to form the valorised product.
Keywords: Bioactive compounds; Extraction; Low-cost substrate; Pineapple wastes; Utilisation.
© Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2021.