Upcycling Apple and Carrot Pomace into Fortified Food Ingredients: Advancing Sustainability and Resource Efficiency

The generation of byproducts during the production of apple and carrot juices can negatively impact the environment. Using these byproducts as functional ingredients represents an integrated and innovative strategy for today’s food industry. This review aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the progress made over the past decade in the applications of apple and carrot pomace in the food industry, with an emphasis on qualitative analyses (compositional, sensory, functional) in the context of promoting sustainability and resource efficiency. The main quality parameters of apple and carrot pomace and pomace powders, as well as of the composite food products in which they were incorporated, were examined with the optimal dosage. The analysis reveals the extent to which the studied powders can improve—or fail to improve—the nutritional, functional, or sensory parameters of composite products, while accounting for environmental impact and sustainable practices within the context of circular economy. It is found that the industrial reintegration of apple and carrot pomace has nutritional, functional, and bio-packaging development potential, with the main remaining challenge being the development of solutions to preserve the color and rheology of composite products.