In the day-to-day running of a fresh-cut plant, there is something that happens constantly: cutting, peeling, adjusting the product so that it reaches the consumer in its best version.
In this process, we inevitably discard parts of the fruit that are not part of the final product.
For years, these by-products have had secondary outlets, mostly directed to the juice industry and livestock farming. But we asked ourselves, what if we were able to go further?
We got to work with pineapple and have responded with high quality bromelain.
From pineapple core to functional ingredient
When pineapple is processed for fresh cut, the core is removed because it is too fibrous for consumption.
But that heart is full of substances with nutritional value, including bromelain, an enzyme with recognized digestive properties and applications in nutrition and health.
Identifying that value was the first step, the second, extracting and preserving it.
And that’s when the real challenge began.
The process matters (a lot)
Bromelain is particularly sensitive. From the moment the fruit is cut, its degradation begins if you do not act quickly and accurately.
Therefore, in this project, reuse is as important as the process.
This work begins in our clean room, where, once the pineapple core has been extracted, the product is stabilized to slow oxidation and preserve enzymatic activity. From there, the process continues in the laboratory, using techniques such as freeze-drying to maintain the integrity of the active ingredient.
The result is an extract with 500 GDU, an indicator of high enzymatic activity, obtained under controlled conditions and with full traceability. That is, technical control applied to each phase.
Innovation born from the process
At Peris we understand innovation in a very specific way: not as something isolated, but as a natural consequence of working with the product every day.
This development arises precisely from there. From looking at the process carefully, detecting opportunities and turning them into real solutions.
On the one hand, waste is reduced. On the other hand, a high value-added ingredient is generated.
In addition, a new avenue of work is opening up that connects pre-prepared convenience food with areas such as applied biotechnology.
Making better use is also making it better
This type of project is part of a line of work that goes beyond a specific product.
At Peris, we have been advancing for years in the integral use of raw materials, collaborating with technology centers and universities to find new ways to reduce the impact of our activity and improve the efficiency of the process.
Because when the raw material is better utilized, everything improves: the process, the yield and also the final result.
With more than 80 years of experience in the fresh-cut range and more than a decade working in the pre-prepared convenience food range, at Peris we continue to evolve with a clear idea: quality is not only in the product you see. It is also in everything that happens around it.
In how it works, how it is used and how this knowledge is transformed into real solutions.