Food and beverage stories
Fruit skins become superfood
Derwent Valley blackcurrant farmer Richard Clark has found a use for several tonnes of blackcurrant skins that are left after the dark purple berries are juiced for popular blackcurrant cordial. “Blackcurrants contain more anthocyanins and antioxidants and all those good things than just about every other superfood,” the Westerway Raspberry Farm proprietor told Tasmanian Country. “It has actually got about a third more anthocyanins and antioxidant than a blueberry.” Samples of the skins have been freeze-dried to produce a powder that can be added to smoothies, used as a topping for yoghurt or as a cooking ingredient. “What the research found was that the skin is where all the good stuff is, or most of the good stuff,” Mr Clark said. “All of a sudden we had this wonderful product, lovely colour, lovely flavour, lovely mouth feel that’s super full of these anthocyanins and antioxidants. So it is almost a concentrated bout of blackcurrants in a single teaspoon … It is only very, very small at the moment, but it is exciting that there can be a use for food waste, knowing how much food waste is occurring in our society.”
4 July 2017, Edition 185
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