Fermented melon by-products: can they contribute to the One Health approach?

One Health concept can be employed to implement an approach that contributes to increasing the use of sustainable practices and improving the overall health, as well as the well-being of humans, animals and the environment. About 42% of total food waste comes from fruits and vegetables. The application of fermentative processes can be an alternative to the valorization of fruit by-products, which can extend the shelf life of the product, as well as add economic and nutritional value, and create a more sustainable way of exploitation. The objective of this work was to subject melon by-products to two fermentation processes (lactic and alcoholic), to obtain flours that can be used by the food industry. Samples of melon by-products were collected in a hotel in the centre of Lisbon and fermented in sealed vacuum bags at 99%, with the following formulations: addition of 2% of table salt of the total weight of melon by-products (lactic fermentation) and addition of 2% of granulated white sugar from the total weight of melon by-products (alcoholic fermentation) – the ratio of peel and seeds was equal to that present in a fresh melon (38% and 8%, respectively). Fermentation was monitored for 7 days at an average temperature of 27 ºC ± 1 ºC. After, samples were dehydrated, homogenized and sieved to obtain a product with a flour texture. The nutritional composition of the flours was analytically determined, while the energy value and carbohydrates were calculated. Melon peel flour subjected to alcoholic fermentation had a dietary fibre content approximately 1.2 times higher than flour subjected to lactic fermentation (36 g and 29 g/100 g, respectively). On the other hand, the total ash content of the flour sample that underwent lactic fermentation was approximately 3 times higher than the alcoholic fermentation flour (20 g and 7 g/100 g, respectively). In terms of salt content, lactic fermentation flour had a content 4 times higher than alcoholic fermentation flour (4.7 and 1.0 g/100 g, respectively). Regarding the carbohydrate content, the difference between the samples was only 1.4 g/100 g. The fermentation of melon by-products, regardless of the selected fermentation process, makes it possible to obtain products with an enhanced nutritional profile, namely due to the high dietary fibre content. High dietary food intake has been shown to reduce the risk of several chronic diseases. Moreover, the approach applied in this study, revealed that the valorization of such products can be performed by a sustainable process (fermentation), contributing to a decrease in the amount of food waste, as well as reducing the social and environmental impacts of these products.

This work was financially supported by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the project Food4DIAB (EXPL/BAA-AGR/1382/2021)

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