Popular summer fruit has an edible part most people throw away, USDA reveals

When most people are done eating the sweet, juicy flesh of a watermelon, they toss the rind.But the U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently added an official nutrition profile for watermelon rind, providing new information about its nutritional value while highlighting a potential way to reduce food waste.A one-third-cup serving of raw, seedless watermelon rind contains 10 calories, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 140 milligrams of potassium and 4 milligrams of vitamin C, according to the USDA.

While the rind is edible, it is not necessarily a replacement for the fruit's nutrient-dense flesh.POPULAR GROCERY STAPLE COULD TAKE HIT AS CALIFORNIA FACES MAJOR SUPPLY VULNERABILITYWatermelon rind nutrition has previously been analyzed by other institutions around the world, but not according to the USDA's standardized requirements, Stephanie Barlow, senior director of communications for the Florida-based National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), told Fox News Digital.The NWPB funded the watermelon rind analysis and spearheaded the effort to add watermelon rind to the USDA's FoodData Central database, Barlow said.The USDA recently assigned an official nutrition profile to watermelon rind, an edible part of the popular summer fruit that often ends up in the trash.(iStock)"Most consumers do not know the rind is edible," she said.

"Plain and simple."A watermelon is, on average, 70% flesh and 30% rind, and 62% of consumers throw out the rind, according to the NWPB's 2023 Watermelon Consumer Usage Study.SEAWEED-BASED COATING COULD KEEP STRAWBERRIES FRESH FOR DAYS WITHOUT REFRIGERATION, STUDY FINDSBarlow said that amounts to an average of five pounds of rind that could instead be used in a wide range of recipes."The watermelon rind is an interesting addition to the nutrition conversation, especially because it is a part of the fruit we typically throw away," Lisa Young, registered dietitian and adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University, told Fox News Digital."Eati...