In the orange juice industry, more than 50% of raw material becomes by-products that are rich in active compounds and have high nutritional content. Improved use of these by-products could represent a key strategy for a circular economy. The objective of this study was to produce a flour from orange juice by-product, characterize it, and then apply this flour to produce cookies. Orange by-product flour (OBPF) was characterized in terms of its chemical composition, dietary fiber, phenolic compounds, antioxidant potential, and hygroscopic properties. Subsequently, the effect of substituting wheat flour by OBPF in cookies was evaluated. OBPF presented a very high content of dietary fiber (73.61% dry matter (DM)), minerals (ash = 2.72% DM), and total phenolic compounds (534 ± 30 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/100 g of DM). In general, the properties of cookies were not significantly influenced by using OBPF as a substitution for wheat flour. Sensorial analyses showed that cookies produced with 10% OBPF presented the higher scores. Therefore, OBPF showed interesting characteristics, suggesting its possible use in the development of fiber enriched foods such as cookies; and its production represents a key strategy for the orange juice processing industries towards the application of a circular economy in the food system.

Food classification systems have been proposed to improve food quality criteria. Among these systems, “processing level” has been used as a criterion. NOVA classification, as the denotation “ultra-processed” food (UPF), has been widely used in different countries. However, even though some studies have pointed out some controversial aspects, no study has evaluated its comprehension by the population where it is used as reference. Therefore, this study explored the understanding of the term UPF for Brazilian consumers, where this denotation has been used in the last 8 years. A questionnaire was used, with questions referring to different aspects of self-assessment of knowledge about UPF. Altogether, 939 valid participants completed the questionnaire, and 81.9% of them declared to know the term UPF. For 78.2%, a better definition for UPF should be “foods that have gone through many processes in industry”. Finally, it was concluded that the term UPF is still confusing for most Brazilians, indicating the risk of use and the urgent necessity to improve the classifications systems and consequently consumer understanding. Only when all parties interested in healthy food work together could this problem be solved.