Value-Added Products From Food Waste

Introduction

The problem of food waste is increasing, involving all sectors of waste management from collection to disposal. Global food waste is approximately 1.3 billion tons per year (Kojima & Ishikawa, 2013). It is estimated that more food is wasted in the industrialized countries compared to the developing nations on per-capita basis (Gustavsson et al., 2011). The wastes generated from food processing industries are shown in Table 1.

Recently, there is great emphasis on the recovery, recycling and reconditioning of food waste. The efforts are made to convert food waste into value-added products (Laufenberg et al., 2003). The food waste can be converted into useful value-added products viz., phytochemicals, bioactive compounds, food supplements, livestock feed, dietary fibres, biopigments and colourants, emulsifiers, edible and essential oils, biopreservatives, biofertilizers, biofuels and single cell protein. India’s share in some agricultural and horticultural produce is shown in Table 2.

The potential of vegetable wastes for production of value added products and for the generation of biofuels is an efficient mode of food waste management. Strategies for efficient waste management must be adopted. The best approach for the waste management is reduction of the waste at its source. Socio-economic aspect of waste generation and handling also has to be considered for adopting an efficient strategy of integrated waste management. Food waste is generated as a part of human society at small domestic level and at large industrial level. In developed countries, the waste management practices followed are viz., sanitary landfills, composting, incineration etc. Wastes are collected and mostly dumped in open or burnt in open (Sandra, 2006). This has serious impact on both environment and human health. When dumped in open or in landfills, food wastes get decomposed by the action of various microorganisms. This produces different gases like methane and carbon dioxide both of which contribute to the greenhouse effect leading to global warming (Brown & David, 1994).

The problem of food waste must be solved by converting the waste into various value-added products which will be very eco-friendly and also effective. The various value-added products from carrot, onion, pea, tomato and sugar beet are mushroom, biomethane, biohydrogen, single cell protein, biogas, bioethanol, mushroom, vinegar, α-L-arabinofuranosidase, organic acids, oligomers, fertilizers, glycoalkaloids, animal feeds, etc.

(Rao, 2010)