Olive pomace bioactives for functional foods and cosmetics

Abstract

The reuse and valorization of olive mill by-products, among others, is getting attention in the food and drugs-cosmetics sectors, due the recovery of their essential bioactive compounds in order to incorporate them as ingredients in functional foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Olive pomace represents olive mill's main residue (by-product), and it is a sustainable and of low-cost renewable source of several bioactive compounds, while its valorization can reduce its environmental impact and make it an additional economic resource for food industries in a circular economy design. In this article, the natural bio-functional compounds of olive pomace with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivities are thoroughly reviewed. The incorporation of such bioactives as ingredients in functional foods and cosmetics is also discussed in detail. The limitations of such applications are also presented. Thus, promising techniques, such as encapsulation, and their applications for stabilizing and masking undesirable characteristics of such compounds, are also exhibited. The so far promising in vitro outcomes seem to support further in vivo assessment in trials-based setting.