Superfine grinding improves the physicochemical, sensory and functional characteristics of Hanfu apple pomace

Apple pomace (APP) is the main by-product in apple processing industry with abundant functional components. To improve the APP economic value, superfine grinding (SG) was used as an effective processing method. The result showed that SG provided great uniformity and particle size of APP. Also, with SG treatment, the water-holding capacity and oil-holding capacity increased from 7.50 to 8.13 g g(-1) and from 2.07 to 3.81 g g(-1), respectively. Furthermore, SG enhanced the sensory properties by increasing the brightness, yellowness and sweetness and decreasing the sourness and bitterness of APP. For functional properties, SG increased total phenols content, total flavonoids content and the soluble dietary fibre from 5.83 to 8.86 mg g(-1), from 4.39 to 6.43 mg g(-1) and from 8.50% to 14.51%, respectively. Therefore, SG improved the physicochemical, sensory and functional characteristics of APP powder. The results would provide important information for applying SG techniques in processing APP or other fruit by-products for future commercial market purposes.