Food industry by-products as raw materials in functional food production.
Summary Western civilization problems nowadays are overweight, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and different disorders closely linked to unbalanced diet. Since it is extremely difficult to influence nutritional preferences of consumers, food industry is now increasingly developing new products, such as bread, pasta, snack products and other highly consumed products by all groups of consumers enriched with ingredients that are lacking in every day nutrition (fiber, polyphenols, antioxidants, vitamins, s-glucan…) and functional products which have scientifically proven beneficial effect on human health. Food industry by-products, such as apple pomace, by-products from sugar industry and brewers spent grains are rich source of polyphenols, fiber and s-glucan. Grape pomace is rich in polyphenols, tomato pomace in lycopene and carrot pomace in β-carotene. These are just some examples of by-products with great potential of application in enriched and functional food production. In addition to natural substances which are produced in this manner, problem of large quantities of waste disposal is also resolved.