Valorization of Food By-Products for Bio-Based Hydrogel Development: A Circular Approach on Bromelain Encapsulation Case Study

ABSTRACT Food by-product valorization is rapidly gaining importance as a sustainable strategy for designing bio-based hydrogels. This review adopts bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme from pineapple side-streams, as a central case study, offering a targeted perspective rarely explored in the literature. Through a comparative analysis of natural hydrogel matrices derived from food waste, we assess how gelation mechanisms, enzyme – matrix compatibility and barrier properties impact bromelain’s stability, bioactivity and release performance. This work integrates insights with translation-oriented considerations, including scalability, techno-economic and life-cycle assessment, regulatory compliance and supply-chain readiness. By mapping bromelain encapsulation strategies onto a circular bioeconomy framework, we demonstrate how food-waste-derived hydrogels can simultaneously advance enzyme delivery technologies and promote zero-waste solutions. The findings highlight both the opportunities and the critical gaps, particularly in reproducibility, regulatory alignment and industrial scale-up. Bromelain case studies further underline the enzyme’s growing interest for drug delivery, wound healing and nutraceutical applications, clarifying when waste-derived hydrogels outperform conventional systems. This review delivers a unique contribution by merging scientific advances with a practical decision framework, offering guidance on selecting matrices and crosslinkers tailored to bromelain’s activity profile, positioning food-waste-based hydrogels not merely as experimental materials but as credible, future-ready platforms for nutraceutical and biomedical innovation.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Food reviews international (Print)

• Publication date

  2025-10-26

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/87559129.2025.2575906
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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