Lucía Seguí

Polytechnic University of Valencia | UPV · Institute of Food Engineering for Development (IIAD)

The growing global population has led to increased food consumption and a significant amount of food waste, including the non-consumed parts of fruits (e.g., stems, rinds, peels, seeds). Despite their nutrient richness, these by-products are often discarded. With the rising interest in nutrient-dense foods for health benefits, fruit by-products hav...

Developing processes that contribute to the valorization of vegetable wastes is of great importance since these residues are characterized by being of high quality, having a huge potential for valorization. However, upcycling vegetables residues and defining specific applications for the value-added products obtained might be a challenge, and they...

Fruit and vegetable industrialisation is a major contributor to food waste; thus, its integral transformation into functional powders has gained attention. Pretreatments can be incorporated into valorisation processes to generate structural or biochemical changes that improve powders’ characteristics. This study deepens into the impact of biologica...

Fruits are nutrient-rich, highly perishable goods which contribute to postharvest losses and waste. The food industry continues the search for processing methods that allow for the manufacturing of attractive and convenient fortified fruits while extending their shelf life. To meet the present consumer demands for more nutritious and sustainable fo...

Fortification of bakery products with plant-based functional ingredients has gained interest in recent years. Low-cost fruit and vegetable waste has been proposed to replace wheat flour, but less research has been conducted on gluten-free flours. Rice is generally accepted as a gluten-free alternative to wheat flour but is poor in bioactive constit...

Fruit and vegetable industries face a major environmental challenge with food loss and waste. Broccoli stems, comprising 38% of the plant's total weight, are usually discarded by the industry producing fourth-range and ready-to-use products, despite being rich in antioxidants, vitamins, fiber, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, and glucosinolates. Ad...

Vegetable wastes are generated during harvesting, processing, and distribution, which implies a wastage of nutrients and evidence inefficiencies in present food systems. Vegetable residues are rich in bioactive compounds, for which their valorisation and reintroduction into the food chain are crucial towards circular economy and food systems sustai...

Valorisation of fruit and vegetable wastes by transforming residues and discards into functional powdered ingredients has gained interest in recent years. Moreover, fermentation has been recalled as an ancient technology available to increase the nutritional value of foods. In the present work, the impact of pretreatments (disruption and fermentati...

Recovering waste from industrial food processes and developing new healthy foods as plant protein sources has been a major focus of scientific research and industrial innovation in food. Thus, the consumption of plant-based beverages from soy, oat, or almond has been promoted. In the case of almonds, the resulting solid bagasse has an interesting n...

Daucus carota L. is an important food crop utilized worldwide and a rich source of bioactive compounds. Carrot processing generates residues which are discarded or underused, for which using them as a source for obtaining new ingredients or products is an opportunity for the development of healthier and more sustainable diets. In the present study,...

The use of radiation in the microwave spectrum has been developed since the beginning of the 20th century with radars and communication systems. The expansion of this technology in other fields has allowed more and more possibilities for food industry applications. Applications of microwave technology to food processing include common unit operatio...

Reintroducing waste products into the food chain, thus contributing to circular economy, is a key goal towards sustainable food systems. Fruit and vegetable processing generates large amounts of residual organic matter, rich in bioactive compounds. In Brassicaceae, glucosinolates are present as secondary metabolites involved in the biotic stress re...

Fermentation of fruit juices with lactic acid bacteria enhances their antioxidant properties to a different extent depending on the microbial strain and the growing media composition, which can be modified by adding certain ingredients or applying a homogenization step. This study analyzed the effect of trehalose addition (10%, w/w) and homogenizat...

Experience is an important requirement to apply for a qualified job. While employers need to find workers with the required skills, education institutions must design curricula which provide the skills demanded by the job market. Besides, along their careers, workers need to make good choices on continuing education courses. Current Bachelor and Ma...

Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is an important commercial fruit that production has recently considerably increased in the Mediterranean region. Together with fruit seasonality, this increase has led producers to look for product diversification by industrializing the fruit, which generates bio-wastes consisting mainly of the peel and calyx. Given the...

Promoting a circular economy through valorisation of food processing waste into functional ingredients is a challenge today. The combination of hot air drying with milling is a cheap and highly available option for obtaining powdered products from blueberry pomace, a residue with a large amount of fibre and a high proportion of polyphenols from the...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of lulo juice as substrate for producing a potentially probiotic beverage with Lactobacillus reuteri CECT 925. Lulo juices at two pH levels and two levels of HPH treatment have been considered to evaluate the effect of these variables on Lactobacillus reuteri CECT 925 growth, physicochemical and antioxi...

To benefit the health of consumers, bioactive compounds must reach an adequate concentration at the end of the digestive process. This involves both an effective release from the food matrix where they are contained and a high resistance to exposure to gastrointestinal conditions. Accordingly, this study evaluates the impact of trehalose addition (...

Innovation and entrepreneurship are key factors to provide added value for food systems. Based on the findings of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership BoostEdu, the objective of this paper is to provide answers to three knowledge gaps: 1) identify the needs for innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) in the food sector; 2) understand the best way to or...

Food waste is a worldwide concern as it represents a constant threat to the environment and a serious operational problem for the food industry. The by-products of fruits and vegetables being a valuable source of bioactive compounds have the potential to be reused and reintroduced in the agri-food chain. This circular approach contributes to a sust...

Lulo (Solanum quitoense Lam.) is a Colombian fruit that is mostly used in the preparation of homemade juice as well as natural remedy for hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine physicochemical and antioxidant properties (antioxidant capacity, total phenols, flavonoids and spermidine content, and polyphenolic compounds profile by liqui...

Although knowledge of the microstructure of food of vegetal origin helps us to understand the behavior of food materials, the variability in the microstructural elements complicates this analysis. In this regard, the construction of learning models that represent the actual microstructures of the tissue is important to extract relevant information...

Raw cane sugars have been claimed to be rich in natural phenolic compounds which, in contrast to refined sugar, may increase the nutritional value of foods and contribute to the development of healthier foods and diets. The use of non-refined cane sugars in food formulation seems an interesting option since they provide natural antioxidants with su...

Survival of probiotic microorganisms in dried foods is optimal for water activity (aw) values between 0.1 and 0.3. Encapsulating and adding low-molecular weight additives can enhance probiotic viability in intermediate aw food products, but the effectiveness of sub-lethal homogenization is still not proven. This study evaluates the effect of 10% (w...

Interest in high homogenization pressure technology has grown over the years. It is a green technology with low energy consumption that does not generate high CO2 emissions or polluting effluents. Its main food applications derive from its effect on particle size, causing a more homogeneous distribution of fluid elements (particles, globules, dropl...

Globalization of fruit and vegetable market generates overproduction, surpluses and potentially valuable residues. The valorisation of these by-products constitutes a challenge, to ensure sustainability and reintroduce them into the food chain. This work focuses on blueberry and persimmon residues, rich in polyphenols and carotenoids, to obtain pow...

The interest in high homogenization pressure technology has grown over the years. It is a green technology with low energy consumption, not generating high CO2 emissions or polluting effluents. The main food applications derive from its effect on particle size, causing a more homogeneous distribution of fluid elements (particles, globules, droplets...

Purpose To evaluate the potential of the industrial waste of Rojo Brillante persimmon as a source for value-added products. The antioxidant compounds present in persimmon industrial waste (peel and calyx) and the suitability of this bagasse to be used as a substrate second-generation bioethanol production are studied and discussed. Both value-added...

The stabilization of fruit bagasse by drying and milling technology is a valuable processing technology to improve its durability and preserve its valuable biologically active components. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of lyophilization and air temperature (60 °C and 70 °C) in hot air-drying as well as grinding conditions (c...

Health beneficial effects of sugarcane have been attributed to antioxidant components present in the plant material, phenolic compounds having been identified mainly in the raw juice, culms and leaves. However, the presence of specific natural phenolic constituents in non-refined cane sugars and their potential impact on the diet as an alternative...

Current food transformation processes must face the food waste issue by developingvalorization processes to reintroduce by‐products in the economic cycle and contribute to circulareconomy, generating social and economic value, and ensuring permanence of agricultural and ruralactivities. In the present paper, the results of a collaboration project b...

The microstructure is a factor in the knowledge and prediction of properties in food and the associated changes during processing. The objective of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of using a convolution neural network (CNN) for the discrimination of structures in foods of vegetable origin. Micrographs of pumpkin were processed digitally t...

Producing dried powders from blueberry pomace allows to reduce its environmental impact and gives value to this waste material. This work aims to evaluate the effect of particle size (fine or coarse) of blueberry pomace dried at 70 ºC on its fibre content and main physicochemical properties, including antiradical capacity, total phenols and anthocy...

This research developed an apple snack with potential probiotic effect (> 107 CFU/g) by combining vacuum impregnation with Lactobacillus salivarius spp. salivarius (CECT 4063) and freeze-drying. Throughout storage (30 days), both the lactobacillus viability and the total flavonoids content decreased. Trehalose adition (10% by weight) to the impregn...

PurposeThe hydrolytic action of Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma reesei commercial cellulases, alone or combined with A. niger hemicellulase, against industrial pineapple waste as a previous step to produce bioethanol was investigated. Methods Enzymatic hydrolysis experiments were conducted in static conditions in an incubation oven, by adding the...

Waste management is critical for the food industry for which there is increasing interest in food waste valorisation processes. Pineapple waste, an abundant agro-industrial residue, is studied as a low-cost material for the generation of different value-added products. The work succeeds in obtaining bioethanol and proteolytic enzymes from these res...

Nowadays the sustainability of a product, a process, or a system is assessed according to three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Sustainability challenges occur at all stages in the food system from production through processing, distribution, and retailing to consumption and waste disposal. Consequently, the promotion of organic an...

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique has been applied to determine the ethanol concentration in pineapple waste samples. To do this, six different concentrations of ethanol were added to the pineapple samples and were analyzed using the system designed by our research group and consisting of the Advanced Voltammetry, Impedance Spe...

The effectiveness of microwave-assisted sodium hydroxide pretreatments to enhance the saccharification performance of pineapple waste was evaluated. Microwave alkali pretreatments for short exposure times (up to 60 s) significantly improved the yield of the enzymatic hydrolysis compared with non-pretreated waste. The greatest increase of fermentabl...

The pineapple industry generates significant amounts of residues which are classified as lignocellulosic residual biomass. In the present paper, microwaves are studied as a pretreatment to improve pineapple waste saccharification. Different microwave (MW) powers (10.625, 8.5, 6.375, 4.25 and 2.125 W/g) and exposure times (1–20 min) were applied to...

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been used for monitoring the enzymatic pineapple waste hydrolysis process. The system employed consists of a device called Advanced Voltammetry, Impedance Spectroscopy & Potentiometry Analyzer (AVISPA) equipped with a specific software application and a stainless steel double needle electrode. EIS me...

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) has been used to develop a methodology able to identify and quantify fermentable sugars present in the enzymatic hydrolysis phase of second-generation bioethanol production from pineapple waste. Thus, a low-cost non-destructive system consisting of a stainless double needle electrode associated to an ele...

Antioxidant properties of commercial sugarcane-derived products were analysed to study their suitability for being used as functional ingredients. Cane honey, several jaggeries and several brown sugars were selected from the market and analysed in terms of physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant properties, and compared with white refined s...

A study on rehydration of isolated apple cells is presented. Isolated cells previously dehydrated in 35% and 25% sucrose solutions were rehydrated in 5% sucrose under the microscope with the aim of analyzing the phenomena that take place during rehydration. Cells response to rehydration was found to be more heterogeneous than their response to hype...

This contribution presents a study on osmotic dehydration of tissue structured foods based on a microstructural approach in which simplified systems such as isolated apple cells and protoplasts have been used. An appropriate description of the microstructure of the raw material and its evolution during processing has been evidenced as critical in o...

Isolated apple cells were osmotically dehydrated in sucrose solutions (25%, 35% and 45% (w/w)) inside a heating/cooling stage with temperature control (30 °C), and examined by video-microscopy. The purpose of this work was to analyse the progress of cell microstructural changes by direct observation and further study of the digital images captured...

The new conception of food process engineering provides new opportunities for product design, since it aims to develop and control processes in order to produce food products with speci c properties of quality, safety, and nutrition as demanded by consumers. Several authors have recently referred to this concept as “food engineering for product des...

SAFES methodology has been specifically designed to describe and analyze foods, operations and processes systematically. It is based on the multicomponent and polyphasic character of foods, requires establishing simplificative hypothesis and it allows us to quantify the changes that the operations and processes cause in food as well as the mechanis...

Tasajo is a salted meat-based product made in Cuba, as a version of charqui, a traditional product consumed in many South American countries. Traditionally, meat is salted and afterwards sun dried, this is a long process which takes three weeks at least. In the industry, salting is done in two steps, first a wet salting step and afterwards a dry sa...

Bakery products have a very short shelf life and their quality is highly dependent on the process variables and on the time between baking and consumption. Apart from starch, which is the major constituent of wheat flour, other substances such as gluten, non-starch polysaccharides and lipids influence the quality of the final product.In this paper,...

Osmotic dehydration (OD) experiments of apple isolated protoplasts at different temperatures (30, 40 and 50°C) and different water–sucrose solutions (25%, 35% and 45% w/w) were monitored. The experiments were carried out under a light microscope (mod. DM LM, Leica Microsystems) with a heating/freezing stage and standalone temperature programmer (mo...

Tasajo is a salted meat-based product made in Cuba, as a version of charqui, a traditional product consumed in many South American countries. SAFES methodology allows analyzing the components, phases and states of aggregation inside the food during the process stages, to understand the process with a suitable level of complexity. It also analyzes t...

Bread is one of the food products most widely consumed all around the world. In spite of being one of the most ancient processed foods, bread remains an important element to our diet, even with the competition of a growing variety of new foods. During the last century, a high technological bakery industry has been developed. Bakery products have a...

Different dehydration techniques are widely used to stabilize fruits. A lot of works about dehydration methods like air drying or osmotic dehydration are being published around the world. In these works, product humidity is considered as the main variable related with quality characteristics of the final product and it is correlated with process co...