Advanced characterization of promising food ingredients using chromatographic and high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques

Nowadays, food byproducts valorization is considered very important research subject to improve the sustainability of food chain. Several international agencies, such as FAO, declared in the 2014 food waste or byproducts as food loss determining a “decrease in quantity and quality of food" which reducing the sustainability of food system. To address the need to reduce byproducts, several ingredients obtained from byproducts have been explored in recent years. Most of these come from plant-based material such as fruits and vegetables. Indeed, fruits and vegetables represent the highest values of food losses along the food chain, and for their intrinsic phytochemical characteristics are the most elective material to generate new ingredients useful for the formulation of new foods. Animal ingredients mainly come from insects, that represent a way of converting organic substrate into valuable biomolecules, and are potentially exploitable as new ingredients. Fermentation using a specific microorganism enables to generate, enhance, or release new compounds, as flavors, making it a versatile tool for developing new ingredients or new flavoring to include in food products improving the final flavor. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to characterize plant-based byproducts (hemp seeds and byproducts from harvesting and cleaning, kiwifruit sub-caliber) and related food products such as bread fortified with hemp flour, alongside animal-based matrices represented by insects grown on alternative substrates, all with potential use as food ingredients. A multi-analytical approach was adopted, involving the use of spectrophotometry (SP), gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using both liquid and headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) sampling techniques, and liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). This comprehensive strategy allowed for a thorough investigation of the main quality characteristics of the different matrices. Additionally, for some of them, such as hemp seeds and their derivatives, an evaluation of food safety aspects was also conducted, evaluating the presence of cannabinoids.