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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Waste Management in Agroecosystems
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1512577
This article is part of the Research Topic Agri-Food Waste Utilization for Sustainable Future: Challenges and Opportunities View all 11 articles
Fruits and vegetables biowaste as a source of functional nutritional components for animal feed
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- 2 Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
- 3 Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences,University of Milan, Milano, Italy
The recovery of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) from markets and processing plants should be considered a resource for functional feed ingredients since these wastes are rich in nutrients and valuable bioactive compounds. In this study, the FVW from the Wholesale Market of Milan, the largest in Italy, was considered, aimed to evaluate the dietary fiber (DF), insoluble fiber (IDF) and soluble fiber (SDF), the total polyphenol content (TPC), and the antioxidant activity (AA) of FVW monthly collected in 1 year. Compositional parameters were evaluated considering the month and season of gathering (winter, spring, summer and autumn). The samples collected each month were representative of the month and seasonality of harvesting and commercialization. The DF, IDF, SDF, TPC and AA were statistically different (p < 0.05), considering the month and the season except for TPC. Considering the seasonal pattern of the monthly samples, the DF content was higher in the autumn and winter seasons (33.3 g/100 g dw and 30.8 g/100 g dw) compared to the spring and summer samples (19.9 g/100 g dw and 21.9 g/100 g dw). A similar trend was observed for the IDF content, which was higher in autumn and winter compared to spring and summer. SDF was greater in summer samples (9.1 g/100 g dw) and autumn samples (8.1 g/100 g dw). The TPC was similar in samples collected in different months (overall mean 2.4 ± 0.8 g/100 g dw), without significant differences considering the season of waste generation. The AA was higher in the spring samples, albeit with high variability (34.4 ± 22.4 µmol TE/g dw). The overall mean of the solid content in the FVW samples was 10.8 ± 1.2 g/100 g. Results show that FVW is a valid source of valuable functional compounds, which may improve the nutritional quality of animal feed. The major constraints using FVW are the variability in the components in the different month-by-month waste generation, the presence of antinutritional components and the water content, which compromises product stability. Future investigations are needed for the recovery of this waste, given its potential added value as a functional feed ingredient.
Keywords: Food waste recovery, Circular economy, Functional feed, Dietary Fiber, Antioxidants
Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 TEDESCO, Guerrini and Giovanelli. 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:
DORIANA E.A. TEDESCO, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
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