Zero Waste Watermelon Production through Non-Traditional Rind Flour: Multi-Objective Optimization of the Fabrication Process

Abstract

Watermelon is a fruit produced around the world. Unfortunately, about half of it—the rind—is usually discarded as waste. To transform such waste into a useful product like flour, a thermal treatment is needed. The drying temperature for the rind that produces flour with the best characteristics is most important. A multiobjective optimization (MOO) procedure was applied to define the optimum drying temperature for the rind flour fabrication to be used in bakery products. A neural network model of the fabrication process was developed with the drying temperature as input and five process indicators as outputs. The group of process indicators comprised acidity, pH, water-holding capacity (WHC), oil-holding capacity (OHC), and batch time. Those indicators represent conflicting objectives that are to be balanced by the MOO procedure using the weighted distance method. The MOO process showed that the temperature interval from 67.3 °C to 73.1 °C holds the compromise solutions for the conflicting indicators based on the stakeholder’s preferences. Optimum indicator were 0.12–0.19 g malic acid/100 g dwb (acidity), 5.7–5.8 (pH), 8.93–9.08 g H2O/g dwb (WHC), 1.46–1.56 g oil/g dwb (OHC), and 128–139 min (drying time).