Carotenoids and Soluble Sugars in Carrot Processing Waste

Quinn Cotter, Lindsey Zenker, Ali Duval, and Samir Amin Ph. D
Food Science and Nutrition Department

Introduction Results
● Nearly one-third, or 1.3 billion metric tons, of all edible food produced for human
consumption each year is wasted, or in some way lost from the food supply (Gustavsson
et al. 2011).
● The United States of America is the 4th largest producer of carrot in the world, and over
85% of it comes from California (FAO ‘14; Wells '16).
● Carrot mash is the byproduct of peeled baby carrot production while carrot pomace is the
byproduct of carrot juice production.
● The objective of this research is to analyze both enzymatically and non-enzymatically
treated carrot mash for the utilization in functional foods.

Materials & Methods Graph 5 shows that there was a higher prevalence of carotenoids in the liquid fraction of the
● 200 lbs of mash (stored in 50 lb. plastic buckets) was obtained from Grimmway Farms in samples in comparison to the solid fractions. There also appears to be a correlation between the
Bakersfield, California, and stored in the dark at -20 °C until treated. expeller pressed samples and an increase in carotenoids - demonstrated by the low carotenoid
content of the untreated mash. This graph also indicates that the expeller pressed carrot mash had
Graph 1 shows that enzyme concentration and contact time sufficiently break down the the highest concentration of carotenoids which could be due to the fact that the carotenoids were
Analysis Method and Parameters (Expressed as) polysaccharides to soluble sugars in the mash. With increases in enzyme concentrations and not exposed to heat.
contact times, a higher concentration of soluble sugars was achieved.

Enzymatic 450 g samples of expeller pressed carrot mash were pretreated

Pretreatments with Cellulase (100,000 CU/g), Hemicellulase (400,000 HCU/g),
Xylanase (100,000 XU/g), and Pectinase (8,000 ENDO-PG/g).
Total solids content of each sample were calculated to find the Conclusion
enzyme concentration. Samples were initially heated to 50 °C
prior to adding enzymes, and either immediately deactivated in ● An increase in enzyme concentration and contact time breaks down polysaccharides into
boiling water to 90 °C or placed in a 50 °C shaker table for 15 or
soluble sugars.
30 minutes and then deactivated to 90 °C before analysis.

● The preliminary study using HPLC, shows oligosaccharide production is possible, further
analysis is needed to conclude concentrations.
Total Carbohydrates AOAC Method 988.12 (mg/mL mash liquid)
● Carotenoid concentrations are higher in liquid fractions than in solid fractions after
hydraulic pressing.
Oligosaccharides
Quantification of the oligosaccharides were performed using an
Aminex HPX-42A column (Bio-Rad, Hercules, California) in a ● Heat during enzymatic hydrolysis may have a negative impact on carotenoid
Prominence Ultra Fast Liquid Chromatograph (UFLC) concentration.
(Shimadzue, Kyoto, Japan) equipped with an Agilent 1200 Series
Refractive Index (RI) Detector (Santa Clara, California). The
mobile phase was nanopore water running at an isocratic flow rate
of 0.6 mL/min. Sucrose at 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 [AMD1] were
used as standards. Carrot mash samples were hydraulically
References
pressed and the liquid portion was vacuum filtered using a Gustavsson J, Cederberg C, Sonesson U (2011) Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Food Agric
Buchner funnel, Whatman Grade 1 filter paper (4.25 cm Organ United Nations 38:28
diameter), and a filtering flask. 1.79 mL of the filtered sample
was transferred to a test tube where 8.21 mL of 95% ethanol at 60 Wells H (2016) Vegetables and Pulses Outlook. Econ Res Serv USDA April:1–13
°C was added. A precipitate was allowed to form at room temp
for 60 min and then the solution was filtered through a 0.45 mm (2017) Production Yield Quantities of Carrots. In: Food Agric. Organ. United Nations.
syring filter. After 60 min,1.0 mL was transferred to amber HPLC http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home
vials and evaporated using a Genevac EZ-2 Evaporator at ambient
temperature and 0 mbarr until fully evaporated. All samples were
resuspended with 1mL nanopore water using a laboratory shaker
table at 750 rpm for 25 min before 20 mL were injected into the
UFLC in duplicate. Peaks were integrated with the LabSolutions
Acknowledgements
Analysis Data System (Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). We would like to thank Grimmway Farms (Bakersfield, CA) for providing the carrot mash and
BIO-CAT (Troy, VA) for providing the enzymes. Partial funding for this project has been made
available by the California State University Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) and the USDA
National Needs and Postgraduate Fellowship Grants Program for funding this research project.
Carotenoids Spectrophotometric method, β- carotene, E1%= 2505 (mg/g mash)
Graphs 2, 3, and 4 show the comparison of oligosaccharide production after enzyme
treatments at each time period. The earlier a peak alludes, correlates to a larger
oligosaccharide being detected. Smaller carbohydrates like glucose and other simple
sugars, allude later down the HPLC retention timeline.