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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1453315
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances and Future Prospects for Sustaining a Healthier Food System View all articles

Peanut Hulls, an Underutilized Nutritious Culinary Ingredient: Valorizing Food Waste for Global Food, Health, & Farm Economies-a narrative review

Provisionally accepted
Suzannah Gerber Suzannah Gerber 1*Susan B. Roberts Susan B. Roberts 2
  • 1 Tufts University, Medford, United States
  • 2 Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Peanut hulls (PHPHs) are an edible food waste that is an underutilized food source for human consumption. While edible and palatable, currently they are mainly diverted to livestock feed or building materials. Here, we describe existing literature onsupporting human food valorization of PHs, and propose methods to optimize recapturing nutrients (e.g. protein, fiber, polyphenolsphenols and other phytonutrients) lost by treating PHs as waste. Incorporated into common foods, PHs cancould be processed into functional ingredients to improve nutrient-density and thewith anticipated corresponding positive health outcomes associated with increases in plant foods. PH valorization can also address additionalValorization of PHs addresses multiple priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals using a Food Systems Approach (FSA) including reducing food waste, increasing economic opportunities for farmers, and increasing the availability of healthy shelf-stable foodstuffs to address food security. Recent advances in sustainable food processing technologies can be utilized to safely incorporate peanut hullsPHs into human food streams. We propose future applications that could make meaningful impacts tofor food availability and the nutritional composition of common foods like bread and plant-based meat alternatives. While the limited literature on this topic spans several decades, no commercial operations currently exist to process peanut hullsPHs for human consumption, and most literature on the topic precedes the technological 'green revolution'. The approaches outlined in this review may help bolster commercialization of this underutilized and nutritious food potentially improving opportunities for multiple global stakeholders.

    Keywords: Food waste, Sustainable food systems, Peanuts, Valorization, Food systems approach, plant food, Food manufacturing, sustainable technology Style Definition: Default Paragraph Font Style Definition: Heading 5

    Received: 22 Jun 2024; Accepted: 07 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gerber and Roberts. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Suzannah Gerber, Tufts University, Medford, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.