DIETARY FIBRE POWDER FROM PINEAPPLE BY-PRODUCT AS A POTENTIAL FUNCTIONAL FOOD INGREDIENT

Tropical fruit juice industries produce a substantial quantity of by-products, which are mainly used for animal feeds. However, because of their fibre content and antioxidant activity they can be used as ingredients in food processing. The aim of this paper was to determine the dietary fibre contents, physico-chemical properties and antioxidant activity of pineapple by-products. A sample was investigated for total dietary fibre (soluble and insoluble dietary fibre), proximate analysis, water retention capacity, oil retention capacity and antioxidant activity (AOA). Pineapple by-product was found to have high total dietary fibre content (64.3% dry matter) with high proportion of insoluble fibres and, carbohydrate value (62.7%) and total sugar content, respectively (86.7 and 14.5 g/100 g). Due to their water-retention ability (8.8 g of water/g of fibre), and oil-retention (1.3 g of oil/g of fibre), the studied sample may be used not only for dietary fibre enrichment but also as functional ingredients in many food products. The antioxidant activity of pineapple by-product was 85.7 AOA%. Because of the high content of dietary fibre and antioxidant activity, pineapple by-product can be of particular interest for further exploitation and utilization as food ingredient.