Discarded jicama: from waste to use

Abstract

The use of agro-industrial waste has taken a boom in the last years, due to the increase of population and therefore the increase on food demand since it is essential to be able to make the responsible use of natural resources. Jicama has an easy technique to produce, however, it requires considerable areas of land and large amounts of water, so once it is harvested it is crucial to be able to be able to take advantage of as much as possible. In Mexico, currently about 25% of the total harvest is lost in the distribution chain, because all jicama that does not meet quality standards established by the market, such as size, color and deterioration, mainly, is discarded and even at the moment it is not used in any other way, all this jicama that is discarded keep its nutritional characteristics and to date is not used in any other way. Therefore, the objective of this work is give a perspective about the potential that discarded jicama could have for the recovery of compounds of interest that give added value and appropriate use to this agro-industrial waste by incorporating it back into the production chain under the principles of the circular bioeconomy.