102708Valorising Fruit Pomace for use an an Affordable, Nutritious Bulking Agent to Reduce Sugar in FoodsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe 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.