Every year, as the presses churn and the sweet smell of cider fills the autumn air, more than 4 million tons of apple byproducts are hauled off as animal feed, compost or landfill waste.
Every year, as the presses churn and the sweet smell of cider fills the autumn air, more than 4 million tons of apple byproducts are hauled off as animal feed, compost or landfill waste. But a new Cornell study offers apple skins, seeds, cores and pulp a different ending.
Freeze-dried and milled into a fine powder, the byproduct, known as pomace, can be blended into commercial beef meatballs at levels up to 20% without turning off consumers, according to a new study published Sept. 12 in the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition. In sensory panels of more than 100 untrained tasters, the meatballs with apple pomace were indistinguishable in aroma, taste, texture and overall preference from all meat formulations.
“It’s a great source of fiber and bioactives,” said corresponding author Elad Tako, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “But as an ingredient, it also has an antioxidant effect and contributes to a longer shelf life for food products.”
Read more at: Cornell University
Doctoral student Peter Gracey works in the Leslie J. Herzog ’77 and Jacqueline Beckley Food Innovation Lab. (Photo Credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University)
