Emerging Non-thermal Processing of Food Waste and by-Products for Sustainable Food Systems - Selected Cases

Abstract

Food waste and by-products are generated in all stages of food supply chain and it is estimated that third of all produced food is wasted. The goal is to minimise avoidable waste, to recover resources in sustainable way and to recycle them back into the food chain. A bibliometric mapping is used to analyse state of the art in non-thermal processing of food waste and by-products. Maximizing product yield, lowering energy consumption, economical, and environmental aspects are essential criteria for designing a new sustainable biorefinery process on food wastes and by-products. Many compounds important for food industry could be recovered or produced by non-thermal processing and bioprocessing: organic acids, antioxidants, aromas, sugars, fibres, proteins etc. These are the emerging technologies to increase the conversion efficiency, to decrease generation of toxic compounds, and to reduce microbial load of substrates. The selected cases of cascade and integrated processes were discussed, with examples focused on substrates, roles of non-thermal processing and bioprocessing in lactic acid production.