Sustainable Utilization of Black Chokeberry Pomace in Beef Burgers: Implications for Quality and Storage Stability

The sustainable management and valorization of agri-food by-products is a key challenge in the development of circular and resource-efficient food systems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of incorporating varying amounts of black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) pomace, a fruit-processing by-product, on the quality of beef burgers. Pomace was incorporated at levels of 0.0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%, and 3.0%. The burgers were baked, vacuum-packed, and stored at 4 °C for 14 days. On the production day, cooking properties and chemical composition were determined, while during storage, pH, shear force, color parameters (CIEL*a*b*), organoleptic attributes, and microbiological quality were assessed. The results showed that increasing the pomace level from 0% to 3.0% increased (p < 0.05) the thermal loss and diameter shrinkage by 5.6 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, shear force was lower in burgers containing 3.0% pomace than in the control burgers, by 3.76 N on day 1 and by 5.11 N on day 14. Burgers supplemented with chokeberry pomace were significantly (p < 0.05) darker and exhibited lower redness and yellowness values than the control samples. Organoleptic evaluation showed that burgers containing 0.5–1.0% pomace achieved scores comparable to those of the control group across most evaluated attributes, indicating that 1.0% was the highest inclusion level that maintained acceptable organoleptic characteristics under the conditions of this study. Furthermore, chokeberry pomace supplementation did not adversely affect the microbiological quality of the burgers during storage, with mesophilic aerobic microorganism counts remaining below 5 log CFU/g in all treatments throughout the 14-day storage period. These findings demonstrate that low levels of shredded black chokeberry pomace, particularly 1.0%, can be incorporated into beef burger formulations without substantial deterioration of quality attributes, suggesting that the valorization of this fruit-processing by-product may offer opportunities to support more sustainable food production practices.