Fruit and Vegetable By-Products to Fortify Spreadable Cheese

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Nutritional Biochemistry
• Agricultural By-product Valorization

Background:

• Spreadable cheese is a popular dairy product with potential for nutritional enhancement.
• Agricultural by-products are rich sources of bioactive compounds like fibers and antioxidants.
• Valorizing these by-products can improve food quality and reduce waste.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enrich spreadable cheese with dietary fibers and antioxidant compounds from various agricultural by-products.
• To evaluate the impact of these by-products on the physicochemical and sensory properties of cheese.
• To identify the most effective by-products for enhancing cheese's nutritional profile.

Main Methods:

• Spreadable cheese was prepared using flours from red and white grape pomace, tomato peel, broccoli, corn bran, and artichokes.
• Physicochemical analyses included total phenolic content, flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity assays.
• Sensory properties of the enriched cheese samples were evaluated.

Main Results:

• By-product enrichment significantly increased total phenolic content, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity compared to control cheese.
• Grape pomace (white and red) demonstrated the highest increase in phenolic content (2.74 ± 0.04 and 2.34 ± 0.15 mg GAEs/g dw, respectively).
• Broccoli, artichoke, corn bran, and tomato peel also contributed to increased antioxidant properties, though to a lesser extent than grape pomace.

Conclusions:

• Incorporating agricultural by-products, particularly grape pomace, is an effective strategy to enhance the antioxidant capacity of spreadable cheese.
• This approach offers a method for valorizing food industry waste streams into functional food ingredients.
• Further research can explore optimizing by-product inclusion levels and their long-term effects on cheese stability and consumer acceptance.