Development of Value-Added Products Suitable for Food Applications from Fresh Date Fruit (Confitera cv.) and its Co-products

Abstract

The increasing commercialization of fresh date fruits (Confitera cv) in Spain is generating important amounts of co-products which currently are discarded as waste with the corresponding environmental problem and economic losses. The aim of this work was to valorize them, in an integral way, applying non-polluting procedures (grinding, soaking, filtering, or drying) allowing their reincorporation in the food chain in function on both nutritional and technological properties. Different intermediate and stable products with high added value have been obtained: (1) Date pastes with 50% moisture content and the same amount of sugars and dietary fiber (20% approx.), good source of K, Ca, and Mg, with low Na/K ratio,whose technological properties give them a great potential to provide desirable texture properties in some foods; (2) date waters rich in sugars and minerals with potential application as natural sweeteners or as source of carbon for the microbiota in fermented foods; (3) date flours with low moisture and high TDF content (58–66%), rich in minerals, and whose technological properties allow them to be used as carrier of oils (i.e., with healthy lipid profile) or as an emulsion stabilizer in the development of new foods.