The juice sector in APAC has emerged as a prime candidate for the upcycling movement, with by-products in both the pre- and post-production processes of juice-making surfacing as having high repurposing potential.
In this edition of our FNA InnovATE series, well-known juice firms in the industry share their insights on the potential to develop new juice products from existing manufacturing streams, as well as upcycling the by-products from juice production into entirely new products.
With consumer demands for sustainability in their beverages – including juices - rise in parallel with other trends such as health and better-for-you, juice firms now have to look for ways to not only ensure the quality of products, but also to minimise waste throughout their production supply chains and boost their sustainability credentials, and upcycling has emerged as a nifty way of achieving both of these.
Fruit products specialist firm Dole recognised the value of this early on, and developed a range of affordable juice products in Asia by upcycling by-products from the regular fruit products it manufactures such as tinned pineapple.
“We saw a lot of by-products being generated in our operations, such as pineapple juice concentrate and clarified pineapple juice – hence hit upon the idea to upcycle these by-products that would normally be wasted into a range of products that are priced more affordably,” Dole Packaged Foods APAC VP and Managing Director Aashim Maholtra told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“[The benefits of these are twofold], to not only cut down our waste generation but also benefit consumers in search of healthy yet affordable options.”
Last year, Dole also established a new specialty ingredients business in Singapore focused entirely on using side streams from its products to make new high-value items.
Beverage firm Frucor Suntory is well-known for its various juice products – and because its main products are fruit juices, its upcycling efforts focus on by-products that result from juice pressing instead.
“The largest waste stream at our production site is solid remains [including] pumices, seeds, peels, and oils that remain after juice processing is complete - these actually makes up almost half the total waste that comes from juice pressing,” Frucor Suntory head of Scientific, Regulatory Affairs and Innovation Lesley Stevenson told us.
“So we've been working to find alternative viable solutions for this waste [and] identify opportunities to more use of the by-products we could extract, such as Valencia oil, the aromatic components that make natural Valencia flavour extracts, orange fibre, orange thickener, orange antioxidants, orange smoothie bases and more.”
Watch the video above to find out more.
