PHYSICO-CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT AGRO-INDUSTRIAL RESIDUES FOR ITS USE IN THE INDUSTRY

In the food industry, the generation of agro-industrial residues from the processing of grains, fruits and vegetables is very common, and in most cases, these residues do not have a proper destination. In this context, this work aimed to study the physico-chemical composition of different residues of agroindustry, in order to find a potential way of reuse of them. Different agro-industrial residues such as passion fruit shell, açaí seed, rice straw, cocoa pod husk and cocoa bean shell, were previously dried and grounded. The physico-chemical analyzes carried out were: moisture, by infrared; ash, lipids, proteins and pH, measured according to the methods described by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC). The results showed that the moisture content of the different studied residues presented different values, being the açaí seed (11.7%) and the cocoa seed husk (10.2%), the products with the highest percentages. The ash presented a high value of inorganic content in the cocoa pod husk sample (10.86%), and it may have the potential to aid in plant nutrition and the cultivation of microorganisms through use in culture media. The percentage of lipids in the samples ranged from 1.49 to 6.44%, presenting low values. The protein content, resulted in 4.89 to 19.92%, therefore all residues presented potential to be used as a medium of cultivation for microorganisms. The pH results ranged from 4.64 to 6.26, and these by-products have great potential to assist in the cultivation of plant tissues. With these results, it is possible to observe from the physico-chemical analyzes of the different agro-industrial residues, they may have potential in different applications, where a mixture of these can be used through experimental design in the use of microorganism or plant tissue cultivation, as well as other industrial applications.