Scientific and technological research on the use of wine lees

Background Wine lees are defined as the residue formed at the bottom of the container during the wine fermentation stage. It consists of a solid phase composed of yeasts and bacteria responsible for vinification. In general, wine lees, despite being a material rich in polyphenols, are underused or discarded. In this context, the aim of this review is to present an overview of the use of wine lees in the food industry and other sectors, by means of scientific and technological surveys. Methodology Bibliographical searches of the main works published on wine lees or grapes were carried out in articles selected in the Scopus and SciELO databases, while the search for the technology protected or described in patent documents involving wine lees and their main applications was carried out through the Espacenet online database combined with the private platform from Questel company: Orbit®. Main text Wine lees represent an important fraction of winemaking by-products and contain several high-value components with potential to be exploited in industrial sectors, such as phenolic compounds. Through the Technological Prospection, it was demonstrated that wine lees are still poorly studied, with few patents filed on the technological/nutritional properties of wine lees. In 2016, there was a peak of patent filing growth and China was the country with the highest number of patents, totaling 31 deposits. Regarding the area of application, agriculture was the most common, followed by beverage production. Most of the inventors are of Asian origin, corroborating the results previously discussed regarding the distribution of patents per country, and this might probably be related to the high investment of these countries in various stages of education and technological research. Conclusion The study suggests that different applications should aim at developing an integrated approach aimed at extracting from wine lees the highest number and quantities of compounds with possible applications in different sectors. Graphical Abstract