Asparagus as a model for a 'Waste to Taste' initiative: Natural vegetable ingredients from vegetable waste.

The central goal of this project is to close the circle in food waste streams through designing an innovative processing strategy using high value vegetable waste for the production of high quality and fully natural food ingredients, in the form of dried products with extended shelf life. White asparagus has been identified as the ideal candidate crop for this demonstrator project where the currently extensive waste stream shall be exploited to develop new, innovative drying strategies. Importantly, these strategies shall concentrate on maintaining maximum flavour in the final dried powder(s), which are to be used as a clean-label food ingredient. Optimal processing strategies developed will be evaluated for their generic applicability to other vegetables such as tomato, bell pepper and eggplant. We aim to overcome science and technology hurdles to optimise vegetable waste conversion in the most energy efficient manner and by retaining quality by specifically focusing on flavour and aroma characteristics. Prototype, high-value natural ingredients shall be produced with optimal resource usage, which meet consumer demands both in terms of sensory quality and sustainability.