Narrative Review on Exploitation of Watermelon Waste in Food Production

Ang, Zhi Heng (2021) Narrative Review on Exploitation of Watermelon Waste in Food Production. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Foods are important for living organisms to survive. Million tons of food were being produced annually worldwide, but at the same time this indicates tons of food will also be wasted. Food waste increases existing pressures on land, water and biodiversity, and are responsible for the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, affecting local resources and the global environment. Exploitation of food wastes could help in reducing environmental impact and improve existing food product. This project aims to narratively review on the nutritional content in watermelon wastes and to exploit any possible usage of the watermelon wastes in food production sector. Searching studies in this review are conducted through screening, examine and selecting relevant information and publications in ScienceDirect, PubMed, Research Gate, Google Scholar and government website such as Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) based on all inclusion criteria and keywords. The rinds or peels of the watermelon can be reprocessed into powder form, improving certain characteristics such as chemical properties, antioxidant properties and texture properties of other food products. The watermelon rind powder was shown to improve protein content, fat content and dietary fibre content of food product. It also showed to enhance the shelf life of a food product by increasing the antioxidant activity in food. The seeds can be reprocessed into powder form, improving the chemical properties and sensorial properties of food products. The watermelon seed protein concentrate had shown to improve the protein content and fat content of the food product without affecting too much on the sensory characteristics. Utilizing these food wastes can gives a huge help to reduce the stress and damage to the environment. Nevertheless, exploitation on the food waste can improve the nutrition quality of food product with low prices as food wastes are easy to obtain.