BACKGROUND: During the 2012/2013 harvest season the Florida citrus juice industry produced 0.55x10(6) metric tons (MT) of dried citrus pellets from citrus processing waste (CPW). The citrus pellets were marketed as a low value animal feed which typically sold for $0.22 per kg or less. Yet, this biomass also contained nearly 110 000MT of pectic hydrocolloids and 25 000MT of flavonoids and related phenolics as potential value-added co-products. A continuous process was explored to release and recover these co-products in a manner that enables their desired functionalities. RESULTS: Injecting steam into the flow of citrus peel through a pipe at 150 degrees C released pectic hydrocolloids and phenolic compounds, as well as several other classes of secondary metabolites from the waste biomass. The resulting steam-exploded peel was washed with water and pectic hydrocolloids and several major classes of phenolic compounds were recovered in the wash water. Over two seasons an average of 72% of the pectic hydrocolloids were recovered. In addition, 41.1% of the polymethoxylated flavones, 11.4% of the flavanone glycosides, 85.2% of the limonoids and nearly 100% of hydroxycinnamates were recovered with the water wash. CONCLUSION: The continuous steam treatment of citrus processing waste provides an enhanced, environmentally friendly method for release and recovery of valuable pectic hydrocolloids and phenolic compounds. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.