Why you might be throwing away the best bit of your fruit
By BBC, April 20, 2026Instead of throwing away edible and nutrient-rich peel of bananas, oranges and other fruits and veg, here are five ways to make the most of them.
It would be strange to needlessly throw away one-third of the edible part of a banana every time you have one. But that’s exactly what most of us do when we discard the peel, which makes up around one-third of the average weight of the total fruit.
The peel of the banana, like many fruits and vegetables, is not only edible but also contains useful nutrients. For an orange, around 20% of the fruit is peel – in 2018, around 15.1 million tonnes of orange peel was generated, according to one study (that’s nearly 80,000 blue whales or 2,500 giant redwoods). For a kiwi, between 9 and 13% of the fruit is peel. For a pomegranate, there’s almost as much peel as there are seeds.
Globally, about one-third of food is lost or wasted, amounting to 1.3 billion tonnes per year. Food loss and waste account for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (more than triple aviation’s contribution). Organic matter rotting in landfill sites also releases large amounts of methane, a potent gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year time span.
Composting food waste instead of sending it to a landfill can help reduce the amount of methane released into the atmosphere. But much of what we think of as waste is in fact perfectly edible.
Within the food industry, there’s growing interest in making better use of both the nutrients and the energy in the peel that typically gets thrown away. But there are ways to do this at home, too.
Perhaps one of the easiest ways to use up peel is in recipes that call for all parts of the fruit, not just the flesh, such as a banana and peel breakfast loaf. Here are five more options for cooking with leftover scraps, which are too often thrown away.
Orange peel – Isabelle Gerretsen
After the Christmas holiday, I had a huge bowl of oranges left over, so I thought would try making marmalade for the first time. Marmalade is a breakfast staple in my house – I always start my day with a strong English breakfast tea and a slice of toast slathered in butter and the orange preserve. I found a recipe on BBC Good Food for the “English classic as made famous by Paddington Bear” which sounded nice and simple. There were just three ingredients: Seville oranges (1.3kg/2.9lb), the juice of two lemons and a frankly shocking amount of granulated sugar (2.3kg/5.1lb).
I quickly realised that making marmalade is not particularly fast or simple. It took me almost three hours to make two jars and involved quite a few steps, including two hours of simmering the oranges, straining the pulp through a sieve into the juice so that it releases pectin (a naturally occurring starch which helps the marmalade set). I then added in the sugar and the sliced peel and boiled the orange concoction for 20 minutes.
This clearly wasn’t long enough, as while my marmalade looked and tasted great (neither too sweet nor too bitter), it remained very runny – not ideal for spreading on my toast. But I’ve discovered a lovely new breakfast option: marmalade with Greek yoghurt.
I had a couple of oranges left so I also decided to make candied orange peel, by chopping up peel and simmering it in boiling water for 10 minutes. You have to repeat this process three times and rinse the peels with cold water each time to remove the bitter flavour, before you mix in the sugar and water. The candied orange peel was delicious – the perfect sweet snack. I was also left with a tasty orange syrup which I’ve been using as a cordial in drinks.
I’m pleased that I’ve managed to transform my bowl of oranges into four tasty food items: marmalade, candied peel, a glass of juice and the orange syrup. An added bonus is that my kitchen smelled incredible – infused with a delicious orange aroma.
Pineapple peel – Lucy Sherriff
Eating a pineapple always feels so wasteful. There seems to be more waste from the core, rinds and top than there’s actually fruit. This time I tried putting those rinds to use.
Tepache is an historic Mexican fermented beverage that dates back to pre-Hispanic times. Not only does it use all that waste, but it’s also a source of probiotics. It’s a fun – and easy – recipe to make, but be careful if you’re avoiding alcohol because the fermentation process means there is some alcohol present (although usually less than 1%, depending on fermentation times – the longer you ferment the drink, the higher the alcohol content).
I used a one-gallon (3.8 litre) jar, a large elastic band, and a piece of muslin or cheesecloth that is big enough to cover the jar opening.
First I washed, peeled and cored one pineapple (an organic fruit lowers the risk of pesticide residues on the skin).
Then I combined water with brown sugar or piloncillo (a traditional unrefined cane sugar from Mexico), in a pan and slowly heated until sugar dissolved. Next, I let it cool slightly, and added the pineapple core and rinds into jar, and poured in the sugar and water mixture while it was still warm.
Then you cover it with muslin, a cheesecloth, dishtowel or kitchen paper – basically you want something to keep the flies out but let air in.
Next, I left the mixture to ferment. I was recommended to keep the tepache between 21-25 °C (70-78F), and to keep checking on it – after 24-36 hours, you should see white foam on the top, which means it’s fermenting. The longer you leave it – the stronger the flavour. Once it was ready, I strained the liquid and refrigerated for a refreshing drink.
Tip: You can add ginger, lime, and other fruits for extra flavour. (But if you’re adding acid, like lemon or lime, don’t add until the mixture is ready as it slows the fermentation process.)
Ginger peel – Lucy Sherriff
Ginger peel, too, is frequently thrown away as food waste.
But it’s the peel that gives ginger so many of its beneficial qualities: the peel contains bioactive compounds which have phytochemical properties that include antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer effects. Ginger peel is a rich source of fibre and vitamins, including vitamin C, calcium, iron and others.
So if you’re not going to discard the peel, how should you use it?
You can simply use the ginger as normal, with peel attached (in fact, very few recipes specifically say you should use peeled ginger), or you can use the peel in other recipes.
Throw them into a soup to add flavour (but remove before blending or serving). Boil them with water to create a ginger broth, which can be stored in the fridge and added to smoothies, juices, cocktails, sparkling water, or used to steam root vegetables to add an extra kick.
Or for a rich flavour, slow roast the peel in the oven and grind it to a powder (either using a blender with a small grinder attachment or a coffee grinder). You can use this powder to brew a delicious ginger tea – make sure you strain it once it’s brewed. The powder can also be used as a spice in cooking and baking.