Fruit and vegetable by-products' flours as ingredients: A review on production process, health benefits and technological functionalities

Fruits and vegetables are responsible for about 22% of food losses and wastes along the supply chain (not including the retail level). However, fruit and vegetable by-products (FVB) may be transformed into fibre-rich flours and bioactive compounds, mainly bound to the fibre, thus bringing value to the food industry due to health benefits and technological functionality. Therefore, these by-products have great potential to be applied in several food industries. The most common strategy is transforming these by-products into ingredients, and there are some processing strategies for transforming these by-products into dried ingredients - flours. Hence, this review aimed to unveil the most straightforward processes already available and discussed in the literature, allowing an easier implementation at an industrial level, thus achieving an actual application and valorisation of these by-products. The food products where these flours have been applied and the effects on the final products' physicochemical characteristics and health attributes are also critically reviewed.