Supercritical Fluid CO₂ extraction technology to produce an innovative healthy product from almond wastes.

The prevalence of chronic diseases and the growing geriatric population make consumers across the globe are becoming health-conscious. They are now shifting from chemically derived products to preventive healthcare items like nutraceuticals that contain safer, natural, and healthier ingredients. Also, there is an increasing number of health and fitness clubs drive dominance of sports and energy drinks in functional foods and beverages which lead companies to launch new products and business. In this work, we studied the potential of supercritical fluid CO₂ extraction technology without co-solvent to produce a healthy product from almond wastes because their content of minerals and phenolics. The analysis of phenolics in the resulting extracted product was performed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and showed vanillin, catechin and the acids dihydroxybenzoic, vanillic and syringic as main phenolic compounds (PC). In addition, the analysis of minerals carried out by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) showed a wide range of macroelements like Magnesium (Mg) and Potassium (K) in quantities up to 1.7g/kg (Mg) and 6 g/kg (K), so that represent a value matrix to be integrated into functional drinks targeting sporty people while promoting the circular economy and the food upcycling.