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Valorization of By-Product Resources for the Development and Sustainability of...
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Valorization of By-Product Resources for the Development and Sustainability of Functional Ingredients in Foods

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Security and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 19 March 2027 | Viewed by 1673

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lucia Parafati

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente—Di3A, Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 100, 95123 Catania, Italy
Interests: food engineering and technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Cristina Restuccia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture Food and Environment, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Interests: antimicrobial activity; biocontrol; food-related yeast; yeast enzymes
Dr. Rosa Palmeri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture Food and Environment, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Interests: food enzyme; enzyme kinetic modeling; functional food development; food formulations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growing global demand for sustainable food production calls for innovative strategies that reduce waste and enhance resource efficiency and, in this context, the valorization of by-products from the agri-food industry represents a promising approach to developing functional ingredients with added value. Agro-industrial by-products can be excellent sources of polyphenols, dietary fibers, proteins, and pigments which, when properly extracted, can be transformed into ingredients capable of improving the quality, safety, and nutritional value of various food categories.

This Special Issue aims to gather original research articles, reviews, and case studies focused on the sustainable use of by-product resources to obtain functional ingredients applicable across a wide range of food systems. Contributions may address innovative extraction and processing techniques, characterization of functional properties, in vitro and in vivo assessments, regulatory aspects, and cases of real-world applications in food formulations.

We welcome interdisciplinary contributions from food science, biotechnology, microbiology, and environmental science that promote circular economy models and sustainable innovation. The ultimate goal is to provide scientific insights and practical approaches to support a more responsible and efficient food production chain.

We look forward to your valuable contributions to this Special Issue.

Dr. Lucia Parafati
Dr. Cristina Restuccia
Dr. Rosa Palmeri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • by-product
  • sustainable extraction
  • biotechnology
  • chemical characterization
  • antioxidant activity
  • antimicrobial activity

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 854 KB  
Article
Screening of Almond Germplasm for Bioactive-Rich Skin Recovery and Application of Liquid Nitrogen Peeling
by Fabiola Pesce, Giovanni Spagna, Lucia Parafati, Aldo Todaro, Gaetano Distefano, Leonardo Luca and Rosa Palmeri
Foods 2026, 15(10), 1668; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15101668 - 11 May 2026
Viewed by 243
Abstract
Almond skins represent an underexploited by-product of the almond processing chain, despite being a rich source of bioactive compounds with potential applications as a functional food ingredient. However, the Traditional Blanching Peeling (TBP) process, which involves the use of hot water, causes the [...] Read more.
Almond skins represent an underexploited by-product of the almond processing chain, despite being a rich source of bioactive compounds with potential applications as a functional food ingredient. However, the Traditional Blanching Peeling (TBP) process, which involves the use of hot water, causes the leaching and degradation of bioactive compounds, reducing the functional value of the recovered skins. In this study, liquid nitrogen peeling (LNP) was investigated as an alternative approach to enhance the recovery of bioactive-rich almond skins. To assess the variability of bioactive compounds in different cultivars, a total of 106 almond genotypes from a germplasm collection were screened for skin yield, total polyphenol content, and antioxidant activity. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to select a representative subset of cultivars capturing the variability of the germplasm in terms of bioactive composition and technological traits. The skins obtained using LNP exhibited higher polyphenol content and antioxidant activity compared to those obtained using conventional peeling. Despite variability among samples, in some cultivars such as ‘Universo’, TPC increased from 570.58 mg GAE/100 g after TBP to 1588.05 mg GAE/100 g after LNP, corresponding to an increase of approximately 178% (p < 0.05). Moreover, in all selected cultivars, kernel color (CIELab*) was not significantly affected by LNP, confirming the preservation of kernel quality. These results highlight the importance of cultivar selection and support LNP as a promising approach for the valorization of almond skins as functional by-products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Valorization of By-Product Resources for the Development and Sustainability of Functional Ingredients in Foods)
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24 pages, 3263 KB  
Article
Valorization of Hemp, Shrimp and Blue Crab Co-Products as Novel Culture Media Ingredients to Improve Protein Quality and Antioxidant Capacity of Cultured Meat in Cell-Based Food Applications
by Davide Lanzoni, Simona Manuguerra, Rosaria Arena, Andrea Santulli, Luca Marchetti, Concetta Maria Messina and Carlotta Giromini
Foods 2026, 15(2), 352; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15020352 - 18 Jan 2026
Viewed by 724
Abstract
Cultured meat (CM) is a promising alternative to conventional livestock production. However, its scalability is limited by the reliance on fetal bovine serum (FBS) in cell culture media (CCM). This study investigated protein hydrolysates derived from hemp flowers (HFs), hempseeds (HSs), hempseed protein [...] Read more.
Cultured meat (CM) is a promising alternative to conventional livestock production. However, its scalability is limited by the reliance on fetal bovine serum (FBS) in cell culture media (CCM). This study investigated protein hydrolysates derived from hemp flowers (HFs), hempseeds (HSs), hempseed protein (HP), shrimp (SH), and blue crab (BC) co-products as sustainable CCM supplements. Hydrolysates were produced by Alcalase® enzymatic hydrolysis and tested on C2C12 murine myoblasts proliferation and viability. At the concentration of 11.7 mg/mL, no significant differences in cell viability were observed between hydrolysates and 10% FBS at 24 and 48 h. At 72 h post-treatment, 10% FBS resulted in the greatest increase in cell proliferation, whereas SH and BC treatments preserved a more physiological myoblastic morphology. Intracellular protein accumulation at 72 h in 10% FBS- and SH-treated cells was equal to 24.66 ± 1.37 and 18.79 ± 1.99 µg/mg, respectively, and 5.75 ± 2.32 µg/mg in BC while hemp-derived hydrolysates exhibited limited intracellular protein utilization. All hydrolysates significantly enhanced intracellular antioxidant activity compared with FBS (5.83 ± 1.12 µmol FeSO4/mg). Although further studies are required to assess long-term performance and large-scale applicability, these findings demonstrate the short-term potential of plant- and marine-derived co-products as sustainable CCM supplements, particularly for enhancing the antioxidant profile of cell biomass. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Valorization of By-Product Resources for the Development and Sustainability of Functional Ingredients in Foods)
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