The review is devoted to the nutritional significance and prospects of garden rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum L.) utilization in food industry. High yield of juice reaching 90% and the ability to complex rhubarb stems processing for juice production and pectin extraction from rhubarb stem pomace are empathized. Rhubarb stems pomace recorded up to 21-23 % of pectin, which is significantly higher than in natural industrial sources of pectin. Medicinal value of rhubarb juice is discussed: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, cardioprotective and anti-diabetic properties are indicated. Examples of high antioxidant content and unique organic acids composition of rhubarb juice are highlighted. Sorbic and benzoic acids are indicated as important components of juice widely used in food industry as food preservatives. Citric acid is shown to be the main component of rhubarb organic acids in spring. Special attention is paid to the non-waste production of juice thanks to the possibility of pomace processing for pectin recovery. Juice biochemical characteristics of four garden rhubarb cultivars (selection of Federal Scientific Center of Vegetable Production) are described: Udalets, Malakhit, Zaryanka and Krupnochereshkovy). Expediency of further selection on high anthocyanin content in rhubarb stems are empathized.

In recent years, the demand for food has sharply increased in functional ingredients, especially in pectin. At present, there is no production of pectin substances in the Russian Federation, and the demand for them is satisfied, mainly due to the use of imported pectin. At the same time, the country has prerequisites for its own production of pectin from non-traditional types of raw materials, for example, bark of coniferous trees, which in the form of waste is produced in large quantities when processing wood in the timber, woodworking and pulp and paper industries, and goes to incineration, although its can be used to obtain such a valuable substance as pectin. The article considers the possibility of using pectins from the bark of coniferous trees in the production of fruit and vegetable nectars with pulp as a biological additive that improves the consistency of the product. To confirm this, VNII researchers of conservation technology conducted studies to test pectin from the bark of spruce and larch on their structure-forming ability. For this purpose, experimental samples of fruit and vegetable nectars with pulp were made: apricot, quince, cherry, redcod, plum and carrot, obtained on the basis of fruit and vegetable purees, as well as the calculated amount of sugar syrup with a certain concentration, with the addition of pectin from the spruce bark and larch, and for comparison samples with the addition of ordinary apple pectin. Pectin was added as a 10% solution in an amount of 9.0% of the total weight of nectar (in terms of dry pectin – 0.9%), which allowed to provide a homogeneous, non-dissolving consistency of nectars.

One of the main directions of the food industry development is the production of functional food products. Changes in the human’s diet structure cause that none of population group does receive necessary amount of vitamins, macro and microelements in healthy routine diet. To solve this problem, food stuffs enhanced by different ingredients enable to improve the biological and food value. The pumpkin is a valuable source of such important substances as carotene and pectin. Addition of garlic and hot pepper ingredients to process of pumpkin pickling enables to enrich the products with carbohydrates, proteins, microelements, which have low or no content in the pumpkin fruit. Therefore, the study of the influence of the different quantities of garlic and hot pepper additions on chemical composition of finished product is very important. The influence of plant additions used on chemical composition of finished product had been well determined. It was shown that through increased doses of garlic and hot pepper ingredients as compared with control, the carotene and dry matter content then decreased by 1.16%-3.43% in pickled pumpkin, while the pectin content depended on added component. The highest pectin content, 0.71% was observed at addition of 10 g. garlic ingredient per 1 kg. of raw matter, that was 4.1 times higher than control. With increased addition of hot pepper ingredient the pectin accumulation was decreasing from 0.58% in control to 0.36% in variant 10g. per 1kg. of raw matter.