Food Science

The development of sustainable packaging materials from agro-industrial by-products supports the transition to a circular bio-economy and offers a viable alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Cocoa shells (CS), a by-product from the chocolate industry, are an abundant source of cellulose with limited industrial use. In this study, cellulose was extracted from CS and chemically converted into carboxymethyl cellulose (CS-CMC), which was then used to formulate bioplastic films plasticized with glycerol or sorbitol.

Abstract

Background

During the production of quince paste, significant waste is generated, including skin, peel, and seeds. Quince is rich in bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, interesting for their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Their extraction is of strategic importance to obtain bioactive ingredients from agro-industrial waste.

The global population, projected to reach 10 billion by 2025 (FAO, 2022), poses challenges to food security. Plant-based meat analogs are sustainable alternatives, requiring fewer resources and supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Jarunglumlert, 2023). However, replicating meat-like characteristics remains a challenge. High-moisture extrusion is a key technology in the formulation of meat analogs.

Driven by the growing eco-awareness, bio-based polymers have been widely explored lately. In spite of important scientific breakthroughs, widespread technological usage is limited sometimes by performance mismatch with the currently used materials and often by the lack of scalability towards large-scale production. This study focuses on the combination of polysaccharides and proteins into a bilayer design that was shaped into flat films in a scaled-up fashion by continuous casting.