Food waste is becoming an important and growing concern at both local and global levels. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one-third of all food production is wasted globally, and in particular, 1.3 billion tons of food produced for human consumption is wasted per year, representing an economic loss of EUR 800 billion. The main foods wasted are represented by vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish. Considering the high availability and the composition of food waste, there is an increasing interest in their bio-valorization. Moreover, according to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 12 and 13), an appropriate waste management represents an essential prerequisite for the sustainable development. This reprint collects interesting manuscripts regarding innovative research focused on food waste valorization through fermentation processes for obtaining value-added products such as enzymes, feed additives, biofuels, animal feeds as well as other useful chemicals or products, food-grade pigments, and single-cell protein (SCP), enhancing food security and environmentally sustainable development.

Food waste is becoming an important and growing concern at both local and global levels. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one-third of all food production is wasted globally, and in particular, 1.3 billion tons of food produced for human consumption is wasted per year, representing an economic loss of EUR 800 billion. The main foods wasted are represented by vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish. Considering the high availability and the composition of food waste, there is an increasing interest in their bio-valorization. Moreover, according to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 12 and 13), an appropriate waste management represents an essential prerequisite for the sustainable development.This reprint collects interesting manuscripts regarding innovative research focused on food waste valorization through fermentation processes for obtaining value-added products such as enzymes, feed additives, biofuels, animal feeds as well as other useful chemicals or products, food-grade pigments, and single-cell protein (SCP), enhancing food security and environmentally sustainable development.

Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges addresses the waste and by-product valorization of fruits and vegetables, beverages, nuts and seeds, dairy and seafood. The book focuses its coverage on bioactive recovery, health benefits, biofuel production and environment issues, as well as recent technological developments surrounding state of the art of food waste management and innovation. The book also presents tools for value chain analysis and explores future sustainability challenges. In addition, the book offers theoretical and experimental information used to investigate different aspects of the valorization of agri-food wastes and by-products. Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges will be a great resource for food researchers, including those working in food loss or waste, agricultural processing, and engineering, food scientists, technologists, agricultural engineers, and students and professionals working on sustainable food production and effective management of food loss, wastes and by-products. - Covers recent trends, innovations, and sustainability challenges related to food wastes and by-products valorization - Explores various recovery processes, the functionality of targeted bioactive compounds, and green processing technologies - Presents emerging technologies for the valorization of agri-food wastes and by-products - Highlights potential industrial applications of food wastes and by-products to support circular economy concepts

This book adds a new dimension to the sustainability assessment of food waste reduction and valorisation: policy analysis. Featuring a transdisciplinary analysis by key experts in the field, it identifies the drivers of change in food-waste reduction and valorisation technologies by looking, for example, at the regulatory framework and at policy actions undertaken by local and global actors. The book explores the development of regulations and policies for food-waste prevention, management, and valorisation at a global as well as European Union level. It also discusses the notion of food waste in legal terms and investigates the effects of the lack of a standard, universal definition of food waste on the efficient use of by-products, promising processes and products for technological and commercial exploitation. Utilising mathematical mapping methods to assess food consumption impacts and providing supply chain models that allow the testing of consumption scenarios, the book goes on to discuss a series of emerging technologies (tested at lab scale and/ or pilot scale) and opportunities for the valorisation of food waste.

"In recent years many countries and several regions in the United States have passed legislation on banning landfilling of organic waste. It is a well-known fact that organic wastes, including food scraps, generate methane under anaerobic landfill environments and contribute significantly to global warming. As more regions are mandated to follow the landfill ban, there is an increasing demand for alternative technologies for the disposal, treatment and upcycling of food wastes. Disposal and treatment may not result in any value-added products and hence are not the most efficient ways to manage food waste. As food waste has a high energy value due to the presence of organic nutrients, it can be a suitable resource to generate energy, fuels, chemicals, and materials through ‘valorization’ technologies. Therefore, to proactively address food waste management issues in the future, this dissertation evaluated three alternative food waste valorization options for institutional (food scraps) and industrial food wastes. First, the food scraps and industrial food wastes were characterized for their chemical composition such as organic and inorganic nutrients. The objectives of this study were to (a) provide a detailed database on chemical characteristics of food scraps and industrial food wastes based on in-house laboratory measurements, third-party analysis, and literature data; (b) analyze the data obtained to understand the variability in characteristics between different sources of food waste. The outcomes of this chapter resulted in a comprehensive data collection and statistical analysis for food scraps from various sources and 10 different industrial food waste streams. The developed data inventory is useful to anyone who does not have resources to carry out food waste characterization and researchers who work on food waste modeling studies. Second, the process issues related to anaerobic digestion of food scraps were address using an experimental study. Process instability is a major issue in food scrap digestion at higher organic loading rates, and often leads to digester failure. The objectives of this study were to (a) study the effect of increasing organic loading rate on the stability of the process by monitoring several process parameters, and (b) offer a solution to the instability issues using an unconventional co-digestion approach. The experiments were carried out in semi-continuous mode with a daily feeding cycle to mimic the real-world conditions as closely as possible. Process parameters such as pH, volatile fatty acids, alkalinity, ammonia, biogas production, methane and hydrogen sulfide content of biogas were monitored on a regular basis. Results of this experiment provided useful information for digester operation on the threshold levels of various process parameters to that would help avoid a digester failure. Co-digestion of food scraps with other food sector wastes such as acid whey, wasted bread and soiled paper napkins were proven to significantly improve process stability and helped achieve high organic loading rate during the digestion of food scraps. These results are useful in the operation of non-farm digesters where conventional co-substrates (such as animal manure) are not available or not practical to haul. Third, the use of fermentation technology in food waste management was evaluated for its technological feasibility. While anaerobic digestion is a well-developed technology for organic waste management with a few processes issues related to food scrap digestion, the use of fermentation in food waste management is not well documented. Food waste fermentation to produce value-added fuels and chemicals is taking shape only in recent years. The objective of this work was to provide ‘state-of-the-art’ knowledge on fermentation of food wastes in the production of products, specifically ethanol, 1-butanol, iso-butanol, and organic acids using experimental and published data. With a combination of experimentally obtained and previously published studies, a matrix was developed that maps the suitability of producing either alcohols or organic acids from various food wastes. The outcomes of this study provided a contemporary knowledge on the research status related to food waste fermentation. Also, the types of food wastes that can be potential feedstocks for fermentation to produce ethanol, butanol, lactic acid and succinic acid were suggested through the developed matrix. The outcomes from this work provide useful qualitative information to the growing number of businesses in the waste management world looking for newer and more efficient options for food waste valorization. Finally, the potential of thermochemical conversion as a food waste management strategy was explored using an exergy analysis and life cycle thinking approach. Use of thermochemical processing to produce a soil amendment called biochar is a circular economy inspired approach and needs evaluation as there is a limited number of research studies in this area. The objectives of this study were to (a) produce biochar using a small-scale commercial thermochemical processing unit and characterize the biochar for elemental composition, (b) estimate the exergy efficiency of various scenarios, and (c) estimate the global warming potential (GWP) by expanding the system boundary to use biochar as a soil amendment. Based on these results, the most practical options for management of food waste were recommended to produce biochar or thermal energy. The exergy analysis combined with GWP potential estimations can assist operators of thermochemical conversion systems to decide upon the practical operating conditions, and policy makers to consider and regulate newer technologies for food waste management."--Abstract.

Global food insecurity is a growing issue. At a time when the world’s population is increasing and agricultural production is challenged by climate change, it is estimated that around a third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted. This book examines the problem of food loss and waste (FLW) and the policies that could be enacted to remedy this fundamental global concern.

This book presents an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to quality and innovation in the food sector with particular emphasis on consumer perception of quality. Chapters cover such topics as identification of environmental variables, practices crops, and cultivars to improve nutritional and functional quality of different food matrices; increased preservation of biodiversity through the use of genetic resources; nutritional and functional characterization of food matrices; and evaluation of the main bioactive substances that give food its functional qualities.

"...an ideal information source for those involved in managing waste and recovering waste for use in products to produce revenue..." (Food Science and Technology - review of Volume 1) "This is a most welcome addition to the literature, likely to be essential study material for both technologists and process engineers." (The Chemical Engineer - review of Volume 1) Food processors are under pressure, both from consumers and legislation, to reduce the amount of waste they produce and to consume water and energy more efficiently. Handbook of Waste Management and Co-product Recovery in Food Processing provides essential information about the major issues and technologies involved in waste co-product valorization, methods to reduce water and energy consumption, waste reduction in particular food industry sectors and end waste management. Opening chapters in Part one of Volume 2 cover economic and legislative drivers for waste management and co-product recovery. Part two discusses life cycle analysis and closed-loop production systems to minimize environmental impacts in food production. It also includes chapters on water and energy use as well as sustainable packaging. Part three reviews methods for exploiting co-products as food and feed ingredients, whilst the final part of the book discusses techniques for non-food exploitation of co-products from food processing.

Food Waste Valorization: Emerging Trends, Techno-economic and Environmental Considerations covers bioactive extraction, therapeutic properties and environmental concerns related to food waste conversion to value-added products, along with advanced technological breakthroughs in the field. The book also provides concepts and theories on several facets of agro-food waste valorization and its by-products, as well as opportunities and challenges. Each chapter contains viewpoints from different fields of research such as Basic Science, Agriculture, Food Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Science, and more, with each having a unique approach to food waste valorization as it relates to their field. This is an invaluable resource for research and development professionals in post-harvest processing and renewable energy industries, as well as the academicians. - Identifies industries and products to make use of food waste - Discusses technological and environmental impacts of food waste valorization - Focuses on maximizing food waste utilization with minimum adverse impact - Provides perspectives from food science, agriculture, engineering, and environmental science