Ingredienti alimentari innovativi ottenuti da sottoprodotti del settore agronomico con tecnologia green

The demand of the current market to produce safe, natural, mostly vegetable foods has prompted companies to select high-added-value and traced raw materials with functional properties to prototype innovative ingredients that can also improve the product from a stability point of view. Additional added-value, in the present context, is the ability to select and recover vegetable matrices that within their respective production chains are a waste to be disposed of, resulting in both environmental and economic impact. This innovative method of exploitation directs the agri-food chain and lifestyle towards a “zero-waste” model, respecting and developing recent circular economy criteria. The possibility of exploiting these recovered matrices is also due to the presence of bioactive molecules with useful biological properties that make them suitable for use both in the production of active ingredients in industrial, cosmetic, feed, food and nutraceutical sectors, and as new food and feed stabilizers with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties; such biomolecules are obtainable also with green processes (Romani et al., 2014; Romani et al., 2016; Campo et al., 2016). The aim of the present study was to enhance an autochthonous spontaneous species such as rosa canina (Rosa canina L.) and a cultivation such as kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa L.), for which Italy is one of the main countries in the world. Powders were obtained by green technology using the fruits of these two species, to be used as innovative food ingredients. The kiwifruits (Actinidia deliciosa L.cv. Hayward) used were waste low size fruits from agronomic production, not marketable according to current European standards; the rosa canina, from spontaneous harvesting in the San Cresci farm (Borgo San Lorenzo, Fi), is a neglected, territorially traced species, to be enhanced thanks to the healthy properties of its red fruits, nowadays insufficientely exploited for the difficult management of production processes. Powders were obtained through an innovative softtechnology that preserves unaltered the bioactive molecules present in the plant raw material and allows the pulverization of the fibrous or ligno-cellulosic plant tissues. Very low granulometry powders were obtained, with high antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, suitable for use as natural ingredients to extend the shelf life of foods and for the production of dietary supplements, nutraceuticals and novel foods. The powders were characterized for their content in secondary polyphenolic metabolites by HPLC/DAD and HPLC/DAD/MS analysis. They were particularly rich in procyanidins and hydroxycinnamic derivatives with well known antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. In particular, the kiwi (fresh fruit), rosa canina (fresh fruit) and rosa canina (dried fruit) powders showed a total content of polyphenols of 0.661 mg/g, 13.284 mg/g and 14.725 mg/g respectively. The obtained powders, after microbiological analysis, evaluation of microelements content and writing of safety data sheets, were provided to the partners of the Research and Development Project PORFESR 2014-2020 Regione Toscana - GOLICE for the prototyping of functional foods such as snacks, waffles, jams, sorbets, ice creams and semi-finished products with high antioxidant potential for sports supplements.