El ITENE Technology Centre is present in Fruit Attraction 2025, the leading international trade fair for the fruit and vegetable sector, which will be held at IFEMA (Madrid) from September 30 to October 2, 2025.
ITENE is presenting its latest Innovations in biotechnology for the recovery of organic waste and the development of ingredients High-value solutions. Among the solutions visitors can learn about are prebiotics, probiotics, and antioxidants obtained from tea waste and used in the formulation of functional foods, and naringin purified from grapefruit, a flavonoid with antioxidant properties of interest to the food industry.
The agricultural sector, the technology center presents a natural fungicide made from botanical extracts for controlling fungi, as well as biostimulant microorganisms designed to improve plant growth and crop quality, within the framework of the ESCUDO project, supported by IVACE+i with ERDF funds. Likewise, the development of bacterial cellulose obtained from orange by-products is being exhibited, in a format for use as a food thickener or as a barrier coating in packaging, opening the door to the creation of biomaterials and biopolymers for food and consumer products, within the framework of the VALOCEL project, also financed by IVACE+i through ERDF funds.
Furthermore, the Manager of the Industrial Biotechnology Area of ITENE, Rosa Doménech, will offer a presentation entitled 'Development of Prebiotics, Probiotics and Antioxidants from Organic By-Products: Pompadour Success Story', in collaboration with Natividad Osés Pejenaute, Pharmaceutical Technical Director at PompadourThe presentation will showcase the Valor@Té project, a success story developed in collaboration with Pompadour, where tea waste has been used to obtain prebiotics, probiotics, and antioxidants with applications in the food sector. This specific example demonstrates how industrial byproducts can be converted into high-value ingredients, generating both economic and environmental benefits. This collaboration highlights the potential of biotechnology to drive innovation, sustainability, and the circular economy in the food sector.
Within this framework, ITENE promotes biotechnology as a lever for transforming agro-industrial byproducts into high-value ingredients for incorporation into final products using advanced technologies, with applications in sectors such as food, cosmetics, nutrition, and packaging.
