Valorization of coffee pulp as bioactive food ingredient by sustainable extraction methodologies

Coffee pulp is an underutilized by-product of coffee industrial production rich in bioactive compounds such as phenolic compounds, caffeine, and dietary fiber. The widely known antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, antimicrobial and hepatoprotective health-promoting properties attributed to mentioned compounds enhance the use of coffee pulp as a bioactive food ingredient. Furthermore, the application of green sustainable extraction techniques pursuing highly efficient and selective extraction processes promotes this by-product exploitation in food science. Hence, this review gathers the available information relative to the impact of the extraction processes on the bioactive compound's recovery from coffee pulp, providing an overview of the most recent advances. An in-depth comparison workout between conventional and alternative extraction methods was performed to identify the most suitable techniques for coffee pulp valorization as functional ingredient until date. A critical discussion focused on advantages and drawbacks of the extraction methods applied to coffee pulp was included together a prospective of emerging extraction techniques.

This work was supported by the Spanish State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research (2021–2023) (PEICTI) within the framework of the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan thought the call Strategic Projects Oriented to the Ecological Transition and to the Digital Transition (TED2021-129262A-I00). MAMC thanks the Excellence Line for University Teaching Staff within the Multiannual Agreement between the Community of Madrid and the UAM (2019–2023). SH is grateful to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for awarding him with a pre-doctoral fellowship (CSC 202208360052) to develop his Ph.D. at UAM. MMT also thanks to the Investigo Program 2022 supported by the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience-NextgenerationEU.

Peer reviewed