Fruit and vegetables are often rejected from fresh-food markets because they fail to meet cosmetic requirements concerning size, shape, colour, uniformity, or minor surface blemishes. Such produce may nevertheless be safe, edible, and potentially valuable as a source of dietary fibre, vitamins, carotenoids, polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, glucosinolates, and other bioactive plant compounds. Cosmetic grading can therefore contribute to food loss while overlooking plant biomass with potential for higher-value food and ingredient applications.
This Master’s thesis will investigate whether, and under which biological, technological, and product-specific conditions, visually imperfect, surplus, or second-grade fruits and vegetables contain comparable or elevated levels of selected functional compounds relative to first-grade produce. The work will be embedded in a reverse bio-engineering perspective: starting from naturally occurring variation in plant raw materials and observable phenotypes, it will identify promising material characteristics and functional compound profiles, relate them to potential underlying stress, maturity, post-harvest, or processing conditions, and derive implications for targeted product and process development. The work may combine a systematic literature review with analytical characterisation of selected materials. The thesis should explicitly differentiate cosmetic imperfections from microbial spoilage, contamination, or decay: only safe and food-grade material is within scope. The results will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between external quality, plant metabolism, and functional value, while identifying opportunities to valorise non-standard plant biomass through tailored processing, ingredient development, and potentially reverse bio-engineering-informed strategies for designing functional plant-based foods.
Kontakt Dr. Evelyn Reinmuth
