Recovery and Valorization of Tomato By-products in R&D EU-Funded Projects

In the last years, the European Commission has been funding numerous projects regarding the valorization of food wastes. Tomato by-products received great attention especially in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal due to high volumes and high concentration of valuable compounds. Among 40 funded projects about the management of tomato wastes in general, 14 projects are strictly connected to the valorization and exploitation of the tomato residues/by-products after processing and are of great interest for their scientific, technical, and economical outcomes. They received an overall budget of around 37 M€ over 35 years, involving 20 European and 4 non-European countries, with project coordinators located in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy in most of the cases. This chapter delivers general information about these projects, assessing and reporting scientific and technical results. Moreover, the interconnection is highlighted among them by focusing on the contribution they gave to the European know-how, the management of the by-products and the progress they reached in waste minimization and valorization. Finally, the industrial and environmental outcomes of these projects have been reported by highlighting issues and problems that are still to be overcome.