Dietary Fiber Concentrates from Fruit and Vegetable By-products: Processing, Modification, and Application as Functional Ingredients

The food industry is continuously looking for new sources of dietary fiber (DF) to use as an ingredient due to its well-known health benefits associated to its consumption. Usually, DF used for this purpose is obtained from cereal products or their by-products; however, by-products produced from the fruit and vegetable industry have comparatively higher DF content with more diverse compositions. DF concentrates (DFC), obtained by the processing of fruit and vegetable by-products, are suitable for food formulations because of their unique technological functionalities and applicabilities, both closely related to the DF composition. This review describes the DF definition and analytical procedures for its quantification, the processing of fruit and vegetable by-products aimed to obtain high quality DFC, as well as the control of the processing conditions to obtain DFC with specific functionalities. Furthermore, it deals with the role of the modifications by thermal and non-thermal technologies, as well as of the application of DFC in several food formulations.