Surplus food and by-products usually binned by processors are being used to make fruit and veg snacks that could be on shelves by August.
The extruded snacks are being developed to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables, to introduce more healthy snacks to the market and to utilise some of the @30bn food waste produced in Europe each year.
Ingredients such as fruit skins and vegetable trimmings are expanded and shaped in an extruder that steams them under high pressure.
In taste tests of apple, orange and tomato derivatives on consumers aged between 13 and 50, only 4% said they would not buy this type of product. The next step is to test production on a larger scale of up to 250kg.
Paul Ainsworth from Manchester Metropolitan University, which is leading the Defra-funded project, said: “There are many health benefits. We are now in talks about commercialisation of the product.”
The extruded snacks are being developed to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables, to introduce more healthy snacks to the market and to utilise some of the @30bn food waste produced in Europe each year.
Ingredients such as fruit skins and vegetable trimmings are expanded and shaped in an extruder that steams them under high pressure.
In taste tests of apple, orange and tomato derivatives on consumers aged between 13 and 50, only 4% said they would not buy this type of product. The next step is to test production on a larger scale of up to 250kg.
Paul Ainsworth from Manchester Metropolitan University, which is leading the Defra-funded project, said: “There are many health benefits. We are now in talks about commercialisation of the product.”
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