Several studies have highlighted that, being easily accessible and collected under
controlled conditions, food waste and by-products from processing has homogeneous features, which give it a noteworthy potential for the extraction of high-value
chemicals and for the direct valorisation as feed. Each stream of materials from
processing may have in principle various routes for valorisation. However, currently the main research focus is on material flows from fruit and vegetables as
source of antioxidants, fibers, phenols, polyphenols and carotenoids and waste from
meat and dairy industries, vinasse, distiller’s grains with solubles, press cake, fish
silage, containing a large amount of recoverable proteins [15, 19].
On the contrary, the variable composition of food waste streams generated at the
consumption stage, limits the possibility of extracting systematically specific
molecules [18]. However, both processing waste and food waste generated at the
consumption stage can be used either as nutrient sources in biotechnological processes [5] or for biofuels production [20, 21]. In the last years, indeed, the interest
for the production of biological metabolites to be used as biodegradable and
renewable substitutes for fossil-based products, such as lactic acid and succinic
Fig. 3 Combination of geographical scale and breakdown of life cycle stages in the existing
studies on food waste accounting. The checks indicate existing combination, whereas grey cells
indicate fields not yet investigated
Bio-Economy Contribution to Circular Economy
55
controlled conditions, food waste and by-products from processing has homogeneous features, which give it a noteworthy potential for the extraction of high-value
chemicals and for the direct valorisation as feed. Each stream of materials from
processing may have in principle various routes for valorisation. However, currently the main research focus is on material flows from fruit and vegetables as
source of antioxidants, fibers, phenols, polyphenols and carotenoids and waste from
meat and dairy industries, vinasse, distiller’s grains with solubles, press cake, fish
silage, containing a large amount of recoverable proteins [15, 19].
On the contrary, the variable composition of food waste streams generated at the
consumption stage, limits the possibility of extracting systematically specific
molecules [18]. However, both processing waste and food waste generated at the
consumption stage can be used either as nutrient sources in biotechnological processes [5] or for biofuels production [20, 21]. In the last years, indeed, the interest
for the production of biological metabolites to be used as biodegradable and
renewable substitutes for fossil-based products, such as lactic acid and succinic
Fig. 3 Combination of geographical scale and breakdown of life cycle stages in the existing
studies on food waste accounting. The checks indicate existing combination, whereas grey cells
indicate fields not yet investigated
Bio-Economy Contribution to Circular Economy
55