Grape Pomace Flour: from winemaking by-product to sustainable alternative for health benefits

Abstract

Grape pomace (GP) is a by-product of wine industry that despite its substantial bioactive compounds content is vastly discarded during winemaking process. The present review aimed to summarize recent evidence on the biological, metabolic, nutritional and sensory properties of grape pomace flour (GPF) supplemented foods administrated to different models. In this sense, the search was carried out in the electronic databases “PubMed”, “Google Scholar” and “SCOPUS” and comprised studies that used grape pomace as its totality for the flour productions. GPF demonstrated a high dietary fiber and polyphenolic content that caused notable changes in organoleptic characteristics such as the color and texture of fortified foods and metabolic features. In some pre-clinical and clinical studies, an increase in antioxidant and anti-glycemic profile and a decrease in blood pressure have been observed, suggesting GPF as a possible health promoting agent when used as a food fortifier. Keywords: grape pomace flour, fortified foods, phenolic compound, dietary fiber