Fiber Enrichment of 3D Printed Apricot Gel Snacks with Orange By-Products

Abstract

Concern about food waste has become a major global concern. The waste generated by the agri-food industry poses an environmental challenge. However, the development of 3D printing technology offers an opportunity to address this problem. By incorporating food waste into inks, it can create personalized food tailored to individual needs. The aim of this study is the valorization of orange by-products (OBP) in 3D printed gels to obtain a final product in the form of a fiber-enriched snack. Gelatin gels were printed with different concentrations of apricot pulp (30, 50, and 70%) and OBP was added. These gels were subjected to a freeze-drying process. The rheology of the gels before and after printing, the printing precision, and the post-treatment of the freeze-dried product, including color, shear force, and the presence of bioactive compounds, were evaluated. The addition of OBP resulted in an increase in the elasticity (997–1242u) of the samples and improved the printability of them. However, an increase in the hardness (173–184u) was observed in the freeze-dried samples. The use of OBP not only improves the printability of the gels but also enables obtaining fiber-enriched snacks, which could contribute to the reduction in food waste and the promotion of healthy and sustainable food.

Viability Study on the Use of Three Different Gels for 3D Food Printing

“…Figure 1 shows a representative curve of each sample in the extrusion test. With the average force, it can be deduced whether the sample shows peaks of higher or lower force, which would be attributed to particle occlusion and air bubble outgassing, respectively [ 24 ]. The presence of these peaks could also be due to the analysis of an inhomogeneous sample, poor gelation of the sample, or samples with fracturability.…”

3D/4D printed super reconstructed foods: Characteristics, research progress, and prospects

“…For instance, Molina‐Montero et al. (2023) used 3D printing technology to develop fiber‐rich snacks with orange byproducts as the main component, and evaluated the rheological properties, printing accuracy, color, texture, and other sensory properties of freeze‐dried orange peel gel before and after printing. These results show that the appropriate proportion of orange byproducts and bovine gelatin formula (with a mass ratio of 70:5) had relatively better color, texture, and stability after 3D printing.…”

“…The printing accuracy index is based on the compar- • H e refers to the edge height of the 3D printed product (Y. ison between printing objects and original design models, by usually using a micrometer caliper or digital vernier calliper to measure the dimension value of printing products, such as length, width, height, and area (Ji et al, 2022;Jin et al, 2023). Nowadays, some image processing software, such as ImageJ software (ImageJ, NIH, Washington, DC, USA), have been applied for rapid dimension measuring (Molina-Montero et al, 2023). For evaluating printing stability about printing products, let them stand for a period of time after printing has been taken as the general operation.…”

Characterization of Antioxidant Bioactive Compounds and Rheological, Color and Sensory Properties in 3D-Printed Fruit Snacks

“…Three-dimensional printing is a relatively fast process of additive, layer-by-layer production in which computer models enable the production of 3D products in various shapes. This technology is already being explored for functional food design, so its application to various raw materials such as broccoli and carrots [ 10 ]; a blend of calcium caseinate powder, starch and medium-chain triglyceride powder [ 11 ]; a betaine-enriched oat-based blend [ 12 ]; orange by-products [ 13 , 14 ]; a gluten-free cereal blend [ 15 , 16 ]; and a pumpkin blend [ 17 ] has been investigated. However, fruit matrices for the 3DP are particularly challenging as it is difficult to produce a functional product that meets the nutritional, biological, textural and sensory requirements [ 18 ].…”