The ITENE technology center has completed the IMPULSO project, an initiative focused on developing technological solutions for the extraction, stabilization, and formulation of bioactive compounds from agri-food by-products, such as avocado, tomato, or grape by-products.
The project, which ran from March 2025 through June 2026, was funded by the Valencian Institute of Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i) of the Valencian Government and by the European Union through ERDF funds, and it aligns with the technology center’s commitment to a circular economy and the development of sustainable ingredients for high-value industrial sectors.
Applications in sectors such as cosmetics and detergents
During the project, ITENE achieved significant advances in the valorization of agri-food by-products through the development and optimization of sustainable extraction technologies capable of recovering bioactive ingredients while preserving their functional properties. These developments enable the production of natural ingredients with potential applications in cosmetics and detergents, also promoting more efficient resource use and reducing food waste.
“One of the main achievements of IMPULSO has been to demonstrate that agri-food by-products can be transformed into sustainable, high-value ingredients for sectors such as cosmetics and detergents. Many initiatives stop at extracting compounds, but in this project we have worked to go further and ensure that these ingredients can actually be used in industrial applications, guaranteeing their stability, functionality, and suitability to market requirements,” explains Annabel Serpico, project lead at ITENE.
In this context, ITENE has worked on optimizing stabilization and encapsulation strategies, using technologies such as drying and gelation, with the aim of improving the stability of the developed ingredients and facilitating their incorporation into industrial formulations to scale to the market more easily.
On the other hand, the project has advanced the production of antimicrobial extracts with activity against target microorganisms, such as S. aureus, aimed at use in detergents. Additionally, extracts with potential use as insect repellents have been developed for this same sector.
Additionally, IMPULSO has driven the production of probiotics and postbiotics from hydrolysates obtained from these by-products, generating innovative formulations with potential applications in products intended to care for and balance the skin microbiome. These formulations have shown anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and barrier-supporting properties, demonstrated in vitro.
The results obtained reinforce the industrial application potential of the developed ingredients and consolidate biotechnology’s role as a key tool to drive more circular, sustainable production models aligned with European regulatory standards.
