Dijon – Extract of rose scents and flavours of vanilla a vulgar grape marc: an engineer from Dijon, has found out how to “release the flavors hidden” from the waste of wine production.
Each year, more than 10 million tons of pomace are produced in the world. Of all time, man has sought to highlight the value of these dried residues that remain after the pressing: distilled to make alcohol, spread on fields as fertilizer, turned into panels of thermal insulation…
But all of this remains limited. However, the grounds contain flavourings rare and highly sought after.
“The grape contains five times more aromas hidden as those that we feel”, explains Maxime Scheduled, engineer for the company’s biotechnology research Workshop of the Fruit, which is installed near Dijon.
But these aromas are associated with sugar in the marc, which makes them unusable. “When a flavor is the only one we feel. When it is linked to a sugar, we do not feel it,” says Mr Scheduled.
For “free”, very few resources exist and they are very often artificial and synthetic. “We wanted to do it naturally,” explains Alain Etiévant, general manager of the Workshop of the fruit.
Beginning 2018, Maxime Scheduled to be launched in a thesis that seeks to find the way to “release the flavors hidden” while “rewarding” the waste. The engineer turns to his school, Agrosup Dijon, and in particular the team Fermentation and microbiology working closely with the Vietnam and Cambodia.
Traditionally, the South-East Asia uses of microscopic fungi to cause the fermentation of foods that are more easy to preserve, “as the fermented soy, the pork is fermented, the fish sauce (sauce, fish fermented)…”, explains Yves Waché, professor of microbiology at Agrosup Dijon and head of the department for Fermentation.
Maxime finds a way to isolate strains that allow the natural fermentation and to make them active in the presence of grape marc.
The enzymes will “eat the sugar, thus releasing the aroma”, he explains.
– Waste “positive” –
The innovation opens a field of applications is huge.
“These molecules are among the most used in the perfume industry, notably in deodorants, because it is this that gives the cost. They also give notes of vanilla, lemon, rose…”, points out Jimmy.
The perfume industry normally synthesizes but the sector “research nature”, adds Alain Etiévant.
“The holding of a natural aroma in a fragrance that has nothing to do with an artificial aroma. And the reviews are terrible”, according to the director of Workshop of the fruit, which claims to have attracted the interest of industrialists.
Companies of Grasse, the French capital of perfumes, “contacted us”, says he, without wanting to give names.
The outlets are also “huge”, according to Mr Scheduled, in cosmetics, and food processing.
“We can make products easier to digest, decreasing the use of the plant or to avoid allergies,” explains Yves Waché, director of thesis of Maxime Scheduled.
“It can enhance the taste of the fruit, significantly reduce the sugars, keep fruit-vegetables a year…”, adds Alain Etiévant.
Because this discovery would also help to transform wastes, such as vegetables or fruit for rotten, in “product positive”, according to Maxime Scheduled.
“For the moment, it is the grape, but there are aromas that are hidden in a lot of fruits and vegetables, strawberries, tea, coffee, apples. This is only the beginning”.
“Many things remain to be done,” conceded, however, Mr. Scheduled. “It is not at all the stage of commercial development”.
Remains in particular to “gain repeatability”, explains Mr. Etiévant. Because, currently, a ferment which will free up the flavors of a strawberry push at Carpentras, could not be done the same way for a strawberry “Marmande”. “It was for the moment a saw or an axe but our goal is to find a swiss army knife”.
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