Easy-going pomegranate: a novel pomegranate product facilitating its consumption

Pomegranate is known as a healthy super-fruit, but a laborious hand-staining peeling procedure complicates its consumption. The existing alternatives to manual peeling (e.g., industrial juices, separated arils, home- or kiosk juicing) have their weaknesses. The objective of our work has been to develop a consumer-friendly pomegranate consumption method. This publication presents a novel patent-pending product that allows easy and hygienic pomegranate consumption as instantly squeezed juice without additional equipment needed. The product comprises a proprietarily precut pomegranate fruit and a multifunction compostable flexible package that facilitates storage, marketing, processing and consumption of the product, as well as sustainable disposal of the processed debris. The development also includes a set of instruments for manual product preparation and a prototype model of processing machinery. In this study, the storage performance of the new product was compared with separated pomegranate arils. The optimally packaged new product could be stored for at least 3 weeks under shelf life conditions (8°C), outperforming the separated arils by lifespan, sensory and nutritional quality, as well as lower microbial load. In a consumer survey performed by an independent company, 72% of 120 respondents confirmed their willingness to purchase such a product when available. The development is ready for commercialization.