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. 2025 May 28;14(6):648.
doi: 10.3390/antiox14060648.

Development of Value-Added Chicken Burgers by Adding Pumpkin Peel Powder as a Sustainable Ingredient

Nicola Pinna  1 , Federica Ianni  1 , Michela Codini  1 , Beniamino Terzo Cenci-Goga  2   3 , Marco Misuraca  2 , Egidia Costanzi  2 , Lina Cossignani  1 , Francesca Blasi  1
Affiliations

Development of Value-Added Chicken Burgers by Adding Pumpkin Peel Powder as a Sustainable Ingredient

Nicola Pinna et al. Antioxidants (Basel). .

Abstract

Worldwide, there is a growing need to valorize agri-food waste containing bioactive compounds to fit into the circular economy action plan approved in Europe. In this paper, the carotenoids of peel powder of pumpkins (PPP) of five varieties (Hokkaido, Lunga di Napoli, Mantovana, Moscata di Provenza, and Violina rugosa) were characterized by spectrophotometric (antioxidant activity) and chromatographic analyses. PPP from the Hokkaido variety showed high levels of carotenoids (2993.90 μg β-carotene equivalents/g). They were mainly composed of mono- (9065.35 μg zeaxanthin dipalmitate equivalents/g) and di-esterified (1832.74 μg zeaxanthin dipalmitate equivalents/g) xanthophylls. It also showed high antioxidant activity (ABTS 2036.02 μg Trolox equivalents/g). Therefore, it was used as a functional plant ingredient (4%) to prepare chicken burgers (100, 70, and 50% chicken meat). Physical-chemical, microbiological, color, and sensorial analyses of fortified chicken burgers were carried out. The product with 70% chicken meat and 4% PPP obtained the highest overall acceptability score (5.95 ± 0.25). The results confirm that the addition of PPP could represent a valid approach to increasing the health properties and acceptability of burgers, even if a larger assessor size is necessary.

Keywords: agri-food waste; carotenoids; fortified meat; microbiological assay; sensory analysis; ultrasound-assisted extraction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
HPLC-DAD chromatographic profile of Hokkaido peel (1. Neoxanthin; 2, violaxanthin; 3, antheraxanthin; 4, lutein; 5, zeaxanthin; 6, violaxanthin myristate; 7, lutein palmitate; 8, antheraxanthin myristate; 9, antheraxanthin palmitate; 10, β-carotene; 11, violaxanthin dimyristate; 12, lutein laurate myristate; 13, lutein dimyristate; 14, lutein myristate palmitate; 15, lutein dipalmitate).
Figure 1
Figure 1
TCC (a), ABTS (b), and ORAC (c) values of carotenoid extracts from PPP obtained from pumpkin harvested in 2022 and 2023 (mean values ± SD, n = 3). Different letters indicate significant differ-ences with a p-value < 0.01.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Microbiological analysis of chicken burgers, prepared with 100, 70, and 50% chicken meat and 4% PPP. (a) Total aerobic mesophilic flora, Enterococcus spp., Lactococcus spp., and Lactobacillus spp.; (b) Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Enterobacteriaceae, and total coliforms.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Sensory descriptive analysis: (a) Appearance attributes and odor; (b) Basic tastes; (c) Texture attributes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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