Public Funding for A & R House (BCL) Limited

The rising number of people who are overweight or obese is a huge public health burden; excessive intakes of sugar and calories above recommendations, in combination with sedentary lifestyles has been associated with this rise. In addition, fibre intakes are reported as below recommendations. This application addresses the challenge of sugar reduction in foods, and an increase in fibre content. Fruit pomace is a sustainable sidestream material generated by a number of UK based fruit processors. There is potential to ‘value up’ this material as a bulking ingredient in foods. Its use as a sugar replacer would improve the nutritional profile of the product by reducing sugar and calories and increasing the fibre and micronutient content. The focus of this application is to develop a method to process the fruit pomace at a minimal process cost, to give a fine powder suitable for application into food as a sugar replacer.

A&R House (BCL) Ltd is a company based in SW England. We take and process, i.e. dry and separate, fruit waste prior to export to Europe and Asia for further extractions of valuable compounds. A&R House (BCL) Ltd want to explore and experiment novel 'green' technologies to undertake extraction of valuable products in-house, with a view to maximise the value of each waste/feedstock material and to minimise waste streams from these processes - ideally achieving zero waste and finding a use for all products. If successful, the exploitation of innovative solutions to generate valuable products from fruit waste should ensure A&R House (BCL) remain competitive in this global market, and generate revenues and growth in the UK.