Title : Recovery of carrot discards and evaluation of the bioactivity of isolated fibres. Example of circular economy.
Abstract:
In several provinces of Argentina, including Santa Fe, around 300,000 tonnes of carrots are produced annually. The quality requirements imposed by the consumer market lead to a significant discarding (between 30-40% of the total produced) of a product that is fit for consumption but does not meet the customer's requirements. In Santa Fe alone, the volume of discards is estimated at 80-100 tonnes per day during the harvesting period, which is mainly destined for animal consumption. This causes economic losses, an environmental problem, proliferation of rodents, decomposition products that end up degrading the soil. This problem is repeated in other areas of Latin America and Europe, which is a problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. A practical solution to the problem is the valorisation of discards by applying a circular economy scheme, through the production of high value bioproducts. The University, providing technical knowledge, in partnership with the agro-industrial production sector, obtained a technological solution that makes it possible to make full use of these discards, providing socio-economic and environmental sustainability to carrot cultivation. One of these bioproducts is dietary fibres, a valuable additive in the food industry that our country imports in its entirety. These fibres are used not only for their health benefits, but also to reduce the fat content of food products, without altering their taste or texture. The extraction process developed, which is subject to intellectual property protection, consists of obtaining the juice and bagasse. The bagasse obtained is subjected to stages of refining, drying and adaptation of its properties to obtain a dietary fibre of excellent quality that can be used as additives for the preparation of functional foods or dietary supplements. Subsequently, the influence of the isolated fibre was evaluated in adult male and female Wistar rats, to establish reference patterns on the effectiveness of this therapy according to sex, having as hypothesis the decrease of body weight, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol, by dietary supplementation with fibres isolated from agro-industrial discarded carrots. The results imply a lower cost for an effective therapy and the quality of the response is related to sex. In addition, the interaction of these fibres with the drugs used simultaneously was evaluated to guarantee an adequate therapeutic effect and minimise the possibility of adverse effects.
Audience Take Away:
- Through this work, attendees will learn about the development and implementation of a simple technological process. It is useful to solve a public health problem.
- In addition, it can be used as an experimental model to teach in the classroom to university students.
