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Solving the problem of large quantities of organic waste, which represents an enormous ecological and financial burden for all aspects of the process industry, is a necessity. Therefore, there is an emerged need to find specific solutions to utilize raw materials as efficiently as possible in the production process. The cocoa shell is a valuable by-product obtained from the chocolate industry. It is rich in protein, dietary fiber, and ash, as well as in some other valuable bioactive compounds, such as methylxanthines and phenolics. This paper gives an overview of published results related to the cocoa shell, mostly on important bioactive compounds and possible applications of the cocoa shell in different areas. The cocoa shell, due to its nutritional value and high-value bioactive compounds, could become a desirable raw material in a large spectrum of functional, pharmaceutical, or cosmetic products, as well as in the production of energy or biofuels in the near future.

The aim of this study was to develop a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of acrylamide and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in corn snack products enriched with food industry by-products: brewer’s spent grain (BSG), sugar beet pulp (SBP) and apple pomace (AP). Development of the method included the study of different sources for ionization, different mobile phases, different extraction conditions as well as different methods of sample preparation. Finally, the single LC-MS/MS method was developed for the analysis of both analytes in one step with a duration of 20 min using a simple single-step extraction. The method with apparent recoveries of 91.4 and 90.4 for acrylamide and HMF, respectively, was applied for the analysis of non-extruded and extruded samples. The obtained results shown that the acrylamide content was <LOD (limit of detection) for all raw materials and non-extruded mixtures, while HMF increased proportionally to the content of added by-products in the mixtures. After the extrusion process, quantification of the acrylamide could be done in all samples. A higher amount of by-products entails higher contents of acrylamide and HMF, with the most significant effect in AP extrudates, where the highest content of HMF (6069 ± 789 ng/g) and acrylamide (5.37 ± 0.50 ng/g) in samples with 15% AP was observed.

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The aim of this research was to enrich extruded snack with cocoa husks. It was added to corn grits in 5%, 10%, and 15% d. m., the moisture was set to 15%, and the prepared samples were extruded in a laboratory single screw extruder at 135/170/170°C, with 4 a mm‐round die and a screw with the compression ratio of 4:1. Physical properties, resistant starch (AOAC 2002.02), starch damage (AACC 76‐31), polyphenol content (Folin‐Ciocalteau), and antioxidant activity (DPPH) were determined. Although the addition of cocoa husk resulted in harder, darker snacks with increased retrogradation tendency, these properties were still in the acceptable range. Resistant starch, polyphenol content and antioxidant activity of the flips increased proportionally with the addition of cocoa husks, while starch damage slightly decreased, indicating that cocoa husk may be successfully employed as an agent for the fortification of nutrients. Practical applications The practical application of the research is dual. On one hand, chocolate industry has opened new way to exploit its by‐product (cocoa husk), which is much better than as use as feed (theobromine has to be removed for this purpose) or mulch (lack of husk is that is light and has to be used in large quantities, which may affect soil properties). On the other hand, snack industry has gain insight into how to improve nutritional properties of the products that are calorie dense and nutritionally very poor.