A new trend that has begun to be recorded in the market is that of the exploitation of fruit kernels, with foreign companies processing and even proceeding with stone exports.
Peaches, apricots, cherries, plums, mangoes are some of the summer fruits that have a stone in the center of their flesh. What, until a few years ago, was a waste, today is utilized, reused and exported!
In essence, companies extract and exploit stone kernels, which they then use again as food ingredients. The reuse of food by-products is on the rise, as it is considered that it could offer a new sustainable solution to the global reduction of waste.
Nutrients in the kernel
Fruit processing industries such as apricots, plums, peaches and cherries produce a large amount of waste, with a large percentage of them being the kernels (seeds) of the fruit that can not be further utilized due to the amygdalin they contain. During digestion, this substance is converted in the body to the toxic and dangerous cyanidin.For this reason, fruit processing companies tend to sell as biomass or look for ways to dispose of these by-products. One stone, however, can contain up to 23% protein, as well as high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E, which led some to try to utilize them.
The process for the exploitation of the stones
So certain foreign companies have started to collect these kernels from the manufacturing industries and use suitable machines to extract their domestic seed, without breaking them. They then try to remove the dangerous amygdalin (cyanidine) from the seed, without affecting the quality and taste of the product, with a new innovative technique. The safety of the final products resulting from this process have been certified after inspections and are now considered superfood.
The first launches after this process, have already started to be done abroad, with the main product being the oil from the seeds (cherry, apricot and plum). An Austrian company even received awards for this oil, citing as its next goal the production of milk, flour and protein powder, from the valuable and rich in nutritious seeds.