In the newest paper by the PROVIDE project, Scheibenzuber et al. investigate the consumer acceptance of new food ingredients from food industry by-products. 

Beside household, retail, or restaurant-based food waste, there are also large amounts of product-specific food waste – so-called food by-products – that emerge during the industrial production of foods and are partly unavoidable. Some examples are spent grains from beer production, whey from the dairy industry, oilseed press cakes from the oil industry and poultry waste. Despite their potential as valuable source for nutrients, these by-products are often wasted or used as low-quality animal feed or for biogas production. By applying valorization techniques, these waste products can serve as raw material sources for different nutritional components like dietary fiber, proteins, polyphenols, antioxidants and other bioactive compounds, which can be added to food products in order to increase their nutritional value. This addition of beneficial ingredients to commonly used food products (e.g., bread or pasta) is also commonly known as “upcycled food”. 

In order to analyze the acceptance of new ingredients from food by-products, focus-groups of 6-7 persons each were interviewed in four European countries (Germany, Italy, Romania, Norway). The acceptance of new food ingredients from by-products was high in all four studied countries, and most participants were interested in enriched bakery, meat or dairy products, mainly for reasons of health benefits and reducing food waste. However, participants were afraid of new food allergies and intolerances as well as increased concentrations of food contaminants like pesticides or mycotoxins, which is why the authors highlight the role of food safety assessments and effective science communication. All details can be found here.