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The production of active and biodegradable packaging materials is an emerging and efficient alternative to plastic packaging materials. By combining poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), pectin, and itaconic acid (IA), biodegradable and water-soluble packaging materials can be obtained that can also increase the shelf-life and quality of foodstuff. In the present study, the generated film-forming solutions were enriched with organic or phenolic extracts from apple by-products (apple pomace). These extracts possess an efficient antioxidant activity of 9.70 ± 0.08, and 78.61 ± 0.24 μM Trolox/100 g fresh weight, respectively. Furthermore, the lyophilization of these by-products increased the extract’s organic and phenolic content and the antioxidant activity to 67.45 ± 0.28 and 166.69 ± 0.47 μM Trolox/100 g fresh weight, respectively. These extracts influence the physical-chemical properties of the biofilm solutions by facilitating the polymerization process and thus positively influencing their viscosity. The resulting biofilms presented low water vapor permeability and reduced solubility in water. Adding IA and organic/phenolic compounds facilitates the resistance against intrinsic and extrinsic factors; therefore, they might be applicable in the food industry.

In recent years, Vaccinium spp. (bilberry-VMT, lingonberry-VVIT, and blueberry-VCS) have sparked particular interest for their prospective health benefits. The latest investigations have place them as important alternative sources of nutraceuticals as their leaves are the main by-products of berry harvesting. The present study is aimed at investigating the bioaccessibility of phenolic compounds from leaves of the Vaccinium species, both as microencapsulated powder and aqueous extracts, following exposure to in vitro simulated digestion. Moreover, the impact of maltodextrin and glucose microencapsulation carriers on the extracts’ phenolic content was assessed. Prior to encapsulation, the viscosity of the emulsions was shown at a shear stress of 50 s−1 dilatant and a Newtonian behaviour above this value with a final viscosity between 1.024 and 1.049 mPa·s. The final microencapsulation yield for the samples ranged between 79 and 81%. Although the microencapsulated forms presented a targeted release at the intestinal level, the phenolic content decreased after gastrointestinal digestion. The bioaccessibility of the microencapsulated extracts showed higher values than their non-encapsulated counterparts, with the highest value of 45.43% in the VVIT sample, followed by VCS with 41.07%. However, the non-encapsulated VCS sample presented high bioaccessibility after in vitro digestion (38.65%). As concluded, further in vivo research should be conducted on the leaves of the Vaccinium species.