Apple pomace, a residue from juice or cider production, shows high content of exploitable polyphenols. In this work, apple pomace was submitted to an Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE) in order to produce extracts rich in antioxidants. After a preliminary study, a solid/liquid ratio of 150 mg of dry material per mL was used, and optimized conditions obtained by response surface methodology for polyphenols water-extraction were 40 degrees C, 40 min and 0.764 W/cm(2). A comparison showed Total Phenolics Content (TPC) obtained by UAE was 30% higher than the content obtained by Conventional Extraction (CE)(555 and 420 mg of catechin equivalent per 100 g of dry weight, respectively) and both methods presented the same extraction kinetics. Furthermore, extracts obtained by ultrasound showed higher antioxidant activity, which was confirmed by HPLC analysis, that revealed main polyphenols were not degraded under the applied conditions. The large scale experiments of this ultrasound procedure showed a potential industrial application. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.