CIRCULAR ECONOMY: ALMOND BLANCHED SKIN AS PROMISING NUTRACEUTICAL PRODUCT

Sicily is a region with agri-food vocation with several consortia. One of the best known internationally is that of Avola almond. Almonds are commercialized mainly peeled for confectionery and bakery products. The blanched skin (BS), which represent the 4–8% of the total shelled almond weight, is the seed tegument obtained during the industrial stripping process. The amount of biomass produced is so large that industries have started to evaluate an appropriate re-use of these byproducts in a circular economy perspective. The aim of study has been to characterize and compare the nutritional and polyphenols profile as well as the antioxidant activity of six almond BS (cv. Fascionello) obtained from different producers. Samples showed a very interesting nutritional profile with more than 50% of fiber, a similar lipid and protein content ( ̴ 11%) and low carbohydrates ( ̴ 5%). High total phenols (2.24-5.07 g/100 g DE) and flavonoids content (23.48-32.00 g/100 g DE) were found as corroborated by LC-DAD-ESI-MS analysis, which identified isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside as the predominant compound (38.73-111.89 mg/100 g DE). Finally, the polyphenols content well-correlated with the strong antioxidant activity found (3.31-34.20 g TE/100 g DE), suggesting that these matrices can find application in the nutraceutical field.