Characteristics and potentialities of Savanna fruits in the food industry

Abstract

The Savanna is the second biggest biome in Brazil and shows a great diversity of fruits with high nutritional value, unique taste and flavour and bioactive compounds with antioxidant properties and health benefits. The consumer market targets products with natural and functional claims and due to the great post-harvest losses of Savanna fruits, the food industry should ally the properties of these fruits and manufacture new products with aggregated values and extended shelf lives. This paper presents a literature review aiming to list and characterize the Savanna fruits (pequi, bocaiuva, mangaba, cagaita, baru, murici, mama-cadela, buriti, araticum and guabiroba) including some studies with possible applications in food industries.