BACOMAVO

Summary

The environmental impact of the agri-food industry, from farm to fork, demands a large reduction on the wastes generated. In this subproject, the reduction of high-impact plastic packaging materials by its substitution by compostable materials obtained from the valorisation of avocado residues will be carried out, in an application of Circular economy principles. The final objective of this subproject (SP2) is the development of active coatings and packages with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties for the stabilization of perishable products, initially, fresh avocado and guacamole, but with potential use on products that are highly sensitive to oxidative spoilage. To achieve this objective, avocado residues, mainly seeds and pericarp, will be submitted to different extraction processes including diverse extraction media (water, alcohol, supercritical CO2,), use of supercritical conditions, microwaves or ultrasounds, and the extracts will be characterized in terms of antioxidant (AOx) and antimicrobial (AM) properties and the most relevant components identified. An optimization of these processes will be achieved by considering the performance and the environmental impact through a life cycle assessment test. The selected bioactive components will be included in starch formulations to produce coatings and films, starch obtained from avocado seed in SP1.

The bioactive compounds will be incorporated into starch solutions to obtain coating dispersions for fresh avocado fruits. The active agents will be added in free form or previously reacted and linked to starch nanocrystals These formulations will be optimized to suit the required transmission to O2, CO2, water vapour and ethylene and favour a slow metabolism, and with the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity to reduce the incidence of fungal growth and oxidation, especially in the peduncle area of the fruit. Also, flexible films made of thermoplastic starch (TPS) prepared in collaboration with SP1 will be provided with AOx and AM properties by addition or functionalization of bioactive components obtained from avocado residues and use a primary packages for fresh avocado. The efficiency of coatings and packages will be checked by monitoring diverse fruit freshness indicators (colour, texture, fungal decay, sensory analysis). Finally, films and trays will be
obtained from bioactive TPS to produce packages suitable for high hydrostatic pressure treatments. After optimization, these packaging structures will be used in the processing of guacamole at different conditions. The efficiency of coatings and packages will be checked by monitoring diverse freshness indicators of guacamole (colour, texture, microbial quality, oxidation level, sensory analysis). Packaging materials developed will be checked for compostability. Finally, packaging and packaged food systems will be analysed by life cycle analysis to confirm that the preparation and use of packages made from valorisation of avocado result in a significant reduction of environmental impact.