Circular economy: grape marc and fruit residues used in cosmetics

Accompanying companies in the food, catering and packaging sectors in adopting circular economy models, actively involving local communities: this is the challenge of the European project CIREVALC Introducing and upscaling CIRcular Economy models in regional VALue Chains in the food, catering and packaging sectors : the initiative - financed by the Interreg Central Europe programme for a total amount of 2.3 million euros - sees the participation of the Chamber of Commerce of Padua as the only Italian partner, alongside entities from eight other countries on the continent.

"Participation in this important European project - explains Antonio Santocono, President of the Padua Chamber of Commerce - allows us to network with some of the best skills, experiences and practices at a European level and to transfer this "wealth" to local companies, accompanying them on the path towards the green transition".

As part of this initiative, a call for applications is open until December 9th for the selection of 12 companies in the sectors affected by the project and with operational headquarters in Veneto: the companies identified for this first pilot action will be involved in the development of a circular transition plan, a free consultancy path that will have as its output the drafting of a report with indications for improving the production system from the perspective of the circular economy. In recent weeks, the launch of the call for applications was accompanied by three different webinars dedicated to the presentation of three model cases identified by the Chamber of Commerce of Padua: Distillerie Bonollo Umberto , Rigoni di Asiago and Gruppo Serenissima Ristorazione.

At the heart of the experience proposed by Distillerie Bonollo Umberto is the project that has

led to the recovery of the grape marc used to make the spirits of the historic Mestrino brand. In the logic of the circular economy, after the production of grappa, the grape marc is used again to create other by-products. The residue from the first processing of the grapes thus experiences a third life and is used for the production of tartaric acid used in the food sector and in oenology as an acidity regulator, but also in the food industry and in the pharmaceutical sector for the preparation of specific medicines. Not only that: the grape seeds extracted from the grape marc are used to obtain the edible oil of the same name, used, for its beneficial properties, in cosmetics and the food industry. The dried grape skins are intended for the animal feed production industry. From the grape seeds, as an alternative to the use described above, antioxidant substances are extracted for the nutraceutical sector (food supplements). The “zero waste” logic is part of the company’s century-old history: already in the 1960s, the grape marc, once the alcoholic and aromatic component had been extracted, was dried and used as “biomass” to produce steam for subsequent distillations. The most recent development in terms of reuse and valorization took place in April 2023 when, together with Italgas, the first biomethane production plant was inaugurated at the Conselve distillery, directly fed into the consumption network, obtained from the liquid distillation residues of the distillation.

On the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, Rigoni di Asiago, a leading company in the production of honey and jams, has chosen the organic route, embarking on a path of sustainable development, with the specific objective of reducing the impact of production on the environment, severely limiting the consumption of fossil fuels and avoiding the intensive use of land and water. Among the initiatives activated, the SARR project - Advanced Systems for Waste Recovery , conducted with the Veneto Green Cluster network: thanks to the collaboration with university institutions and with an external partner specialized in technology transfer for the phytochemical characterization of residues and formulations starting from processing residues - such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, elderberries and apples - a new line of ingredients has been developed to be used in the nutraceutical and cosmetics sector

The third model case is represented by the Serenissima Ristorazione Group , today one of the most important Italian companies in the field of commercial and collective catering with a production of approximately 40 thousand meals per day in the Boara Pisani plant, one of the most modern and technologically advanced centers in Europe. Among the good practices that distinguish the Group's commitment, the choice to donate unsold meals to minimize waste, the practices for the reduction and recovery of waste, the use of technologies to improve and streamline production processes by eliminating waste.