CLACS Speaker Series presents: Sustainable Food Preservation: Harnessing Essential Oils and Agro-Industrial By-Products as Bioactive Systems

CLACS Speaker Series presents: Patricia R. Quiroga & Valeria Nepote, "Sustainable Food Preservation: Harnessing Essential Oils and Agro-Industrial By-Products as Bioactive Systems"

Agro-industrial by-products and plant-derived bioactive compounds offer valuable opportunities for developing sustainable food preservation strategies. This presentation integrates complementary research projects focused on the recovery, characterization, encapsulation, and application of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents. Byproducts from peanut, soybean, sunflower, canola, and chickpea processing, including seed coats, expellers, cakes, flours, and discarded grains, are explored as sources of polyphenols, proteins, and other functional ingredients. Essential oils from regional aromatic plants are also investigated for their chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, and potential synergistic effects. Protein concentrates and isolates recovered from agro-industrial by-products serve as structural matrices for edible films and coatings, wall materials for microcapsules, and delivery vehicles that protect bioactive compounds and enable their controlled release. Particular emphasis is placed on the integrated valorization of peanut by-products by combining polyphenol-rich peanut skins with proteins obtained from peanut expeller to produce natural microcapsules. These systems are characterized in terms of physicochemical properties, stability, release behavior, and preliminary toxicity. Their effectiveness is assessed in model and real food matrices through chemical, microbiological, sensory, and shelf-life analyses. These approaches promote circular economy principles and provide transferable strategies for  safer, more effective, and sustainable food preservation, with potential for industrial implementation

Patricia Raquel Quiroga is an adjunct professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and adjunct researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Valeria Nepote is an assistant professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and principal researcher at the Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV-CONICET).