Recent Innovations on the Reuse of Almond and Hazelnut By-Products: A Review

Nuts consumption has increased significantly in the last 10 years, especially driven by the stimulated awareness of their possible beneficial health effects. Increased nuts consumption is linked to an obvious accumulation of by-products and waste. With the view of the circular economy, the aim of this review is to analyse the recent and innovative approaches able to valorise the by-products derived from almonds and hazelnuts, two important nut products of the Italian scene, with historical and traditional importance. The most important solutions are concerned with reuse of almond hull, shell, skin, oil cake, and hazelnut shell; skin and oil cake are often considered waste or by-products. Many interesting implications in the feed and food sectors have been detected in the last ten years, aimed at designing innovative materials developed from by-products and extraction of bioactive molecules for different purposes. The perspective chosen to discuss the topic is related to the sustainability of these processes, in terms of both the environment and economy. The circular economy supports a zero-waste approach, which should not also be meant as a zero-cost process in terms of the level of technology that has been partially developed

Effects of innovative packaging materials on apricot fruits (cv Tom Cot®)

Introduction. Innovation in the management of perishability/freshness is an essential theme of the future fruit sector, not only for commercial and distribution systems but also for production. Plastic films with modified atmospheres represent a postharvest technology that can be used to store stone fruits, such as apricots, that have a short shelf life when maintained in a normal atmosphere under cold conditions. The aim of our work was to evaluate the effect of several packaging materials on the postharvest quality of apricot fruits stored for 21 days by considering the most important qualitative traits. Materials and methods. Modified atmosphere technology with different packaging materials was used to store apricot fruits cv. Tom Cot® at (+1 ± 0.5) °C and 90–95% relative humidity (RH). Different passive modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) conditions were developed because of the interaction between fruit respiration and the different oxygen and carbon dioxide barriers of the films. The effects of MAP were evaluated on the postharvest quality of the fruits by monitoring the headspace gas composition, weight loss, fruit flesh firmness (FFF), total soluble solids content (TSS), titratable acidity (TA) and skin colour. Results and discussion. Changes in packaging headspace gas composition were observed for all films used, but only multilayer films and biodegradable film maintained the MAP conditions until the end of storage. Wrapped fruits lost less weight than fruits maintained under normal conditions; in particular, multilayer films maintained the highest FFF values after 21 days. The biodegradable film exhibited good performance in terms of maintaining the CO2 and O2 equilibrium inside the baskets by balancing the fruits’ respiration and the film’s permeability. Traditional plastic materials, such as multilayer films, and more sustainable films, such as the biodegradable film used in our study, can be successfully employed to store apricot fruits cv. Tom Cot® for up to 21 days in passive MAP conditions