Revalorisation of Agro-Industrial Wastes
into High Value-Added Products
Álvaro Fernández-Ochoa, Francisco Javier Leyva-Jiménez,
Sandra Pimentel-Moral, María del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar,
María Elena Alañón, Antonio Segura-Carretero,
and María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea
Abstract
Agro-industrial waste represents large economic and
environmental problems and is related to a greenhouse
gas emissions. However, most of these residues have
shown to be a valuable source of bioactive compounds or
ingredients that could be used for pharmaceutical, food,
cosmetic, and bioenergy industries. The reduction of this
waste and the revalorisation of agro-industrial
by-products contribute to minimise the ecological impact
through bioeconomy or circular economy models. In
order to carry out these approaches, extraction techniques
play a fundamental role in these processes since they are
capable of isolating the compounds of interest but they
may apply in a sustainable way. This chapter presents the
potential applications of reusing agro-industrial
by-products to develop high added value products and
the role of these applications in strategies against climate
change or in the revaluation of companies. In addition, the
main agro-industrial waste from vegetables, fruits, or
cereals are described, as well as the main bioactive
ingredients detected in these and the main extraction
techniques used.
Keywords
Agro-industrial waste Á By-products Á Green technology
Á Bioeconomy Á Revalorisation Á Nutraceuticals Á
Cosmeceuticals Á Functional food
1 Introduction
The population growth and the changes in eating habits have
produced during the last decades an increase of the agri-food
industries which make or process food products from fruits,
vegetables, and cereals (Sagar et al. 2018). This fact has led
to an increase in the production of millions of tonnes of
agro-industrial wastes which are sometimes unexploited
producing a significant environmental impact in addition to
an economic impact on the agri-food companies for their
management (Tonini et al. 2018). The agro-industrial residues are generally made up of peels, skins, leaves, seeds,
pulps, rinds, among other parts of the food species, as well
as the entire part of the food product for not meeting different quality criteria such as the state of ripeness or size,
among others. In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that about a
third of food products were lost or wasted (Gustavsson et al.
2011).
In order to minimise the environmental and economic
impacts, different alternatives have been proposed. For
Á. Fernández-Ochoa Á S. Pimentel-Moral Á
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar Á A. Segura-Carretero Á
M. de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea (&)
Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Granada,
Avda. Fuente Nueva s/n, Granada, Spain
e-mail: mluzcadiz@ugr.es
Á. Fernández-Ochoa
e-mail: alvaroferochoa@ugr.es
S. Pimentel-Moral
e-mail: spimentel@ugr.es
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar
e-mail: marivillegas@ugr.es
A. Segura-Carretero
e-mail: ansegura@ugr.es
Á. Fernández-Ochoa Á F. J. Leyva-Jiménez Á S. Pimentel-Moral Á
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar Á M. E. Alañón Á
A. Segura-Carretero Á M. de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea
Research and Development of Functional Food Centre (CIDAF),
Granada, Spain
e-mail: jleyva@cidaf.es
M. E. Alañón
Area of Food Technology, Regional Institute for Applied
Scientific Research (IRICA), University of Castilla-La Mancha,
Avda. Camilo José Cela, 10, Ciudad Real, Spain
e-mail: mariaelena.alanon@uclm.es
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Inamuddin and A. Khan (eds.), Sustainable Bioconversion of Waste to Value Added Products, Advances in Science,
Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61837-7_14
229
into High Value-Added Products
Álvaro Fernández-Ochoa, Francisco Javier Leyva-Jiménez,
Sandra Pimentel-Moral, María del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar,
María Elena Alañón, Antonio Segura-Carretero,
and María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea
Abstract
Agro-industrial waste represents large economic and
environmental problems and is related to a greenhouse
gas emissions. However, most of these residues have
shown to be a valuable source of bioactive compounds or
ingredients that could be used for pharmaceutical, food,
cosmetic, and bioenergy industries. The reduction of this
waste and the revalorisation of agro-industrial
by-products contribute to minimise the ecological impact
through bioeconomy or circular economy models. In
order to carry out these approaches, extraction techniques
play a fundamental role in these processes since they are
capable of isolating the compounds of interest but they
may apply in a sustainable way. This chapter presents the
potential applications of reusing agro-industrial
by-products to develop high added value products and
the role of these applications in strategies against climate
change or in the revaluation of companies. In addition, the
main agro-industrial waste from vegetables, fruits, or
cereals are described, as well as the main bioactive
ingredients detected in these and the main extraction
techniques used.
Keywords
Agro-industrial waste Á By-products Á Green technology
Á Bioeconomy Á Revalorisation Á Nutraceuticals Á
Cosmeceuticals Á Functional food
1 Introduction
The population growth and the changes in eating habits have
produced during the last decades an increase of the agri-food
industries which make or process food products from fruits,
vegetables, and cereals (Sagar et al. 2018). This fact has led
to an increase in the production of millions of tonnes of
agro-industrial wastes which are sometimes unexploited
producing a significant environmental impact in addition to
an economic impact on the agri-food companies for their
management (Tonini et al. 2018). The agro-industrial residues are generally made up of peels, skins, leaves, seeds,
pulps, rinds, among other parts of the food species, as well
as the entire part of the food product for not meeting different quality criteria such as the state of ripeness or size,
among others. In 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that about a
third of food products were lost or wasted (Gustavsson et al.
2011).
In order to minimise the environmental and economic
impacts, different alternatives have been proposed. For
Á. Fernández-Ochoa Á S. Pimentel-Moral Á
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar Á A. Segura-Carretero Á
M. de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea (&)
Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Granada,
Avda. Fuente Nueva s/n, Granada, Spain
e-mail: mluzcadiz@ugr.es
Á. Fernández-Ochoa
e-mail: alvaroferochoa@ugr.es
S. Pimentel-Moral
e-mail: spimentel@ugr.es
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar
e-mail: marivillegas@ugr.es
A. Segura-Carretero
e-mail: ansegura@ugr.es
Á. Fernández-Ochoa Á F. J. Leyva-Jiménez Á S. Pimentel-Moral Á
M. del Carmen Villegas-Aguilar Á M. E. Alañón Á
A. Segura-Carretero Á M. de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea
Research and Development of Functional Food Centre (CIDAF),
Granada, Spain
e-mail: jleyva@cidaf.es
M. E. Alañón
Area of Food Technology, Regional Institute for Applied
Scientific Research (IRICA), University of Castilla-La Mancha,
Avda. Camilo José Cela, 10, Ciudad Real, Spain
e-mail: mariaelena.alanon@uclm.es
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Inamuddin and A. Khan (eds.), Sustainable Bioconversion of Waste to Value Added Products, Advances in Science,
Technology & Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61837-7_14
229