ITRI assists in transforming used lemons into products in food, cosmetics, medicine, animal feed, and other fields.

The lemon juice we drink uses only one-third of the whole lemon, and the remaining two-thirds are waste. As the largest lemon juice factory in Taiwan, Yongda Food Technology produces up to 3,000 tons of used lemons every year, which costs approximately NT$6 million annually in cleaning and transportation costs.

High-value, full use of lemons

Yongda focuses on the full use of agricultural products and integrates such technologies as high-efficiency extraction and microbial transformation, through the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (ITRI) Central Region Campus, to convert the peel and pomace of used lemons into high-end essential oil hydrosol, pectin, and silage, in accordance with the biological value pyramid, which can then be used in food, cosmetics, medicine, animal feed, and other field

▪ The current market price of the small molecule pectin extracted from the used lemons is NT$2,000/kg, and demand in Taiwan is about 30 tons per year. It has been used in producing functional products by collaborating with Essenture.

▪ Providing silage for stock consumption can reduce GHG emissions during the feeding process.

Partners:

▪ Yongda Food Technology Co., LTD.

▪ Biozyme Biotechnology Corp.