Extracting Value-Added Products from Food Waste

Generating Value from Food Waste Today, most individuals and communities have measures in place, large and small, to address food waste. Questions about what happens to food waste afterwards, how it is utilized, and whether it can serve as a sustainable resource occupy much of our thinking. For example, preparing meatball mixture from leftover stale bread or composting fruit, vegetable scraps and peels both represent generating added value from food waste, but there is also a larger-scale, industrial dimension to the matter. In this article, we will attempt to address these aspects. In industrial operations, food waste can be defined as materials with integrated and holistic structure. These materials can range from individual waste to industrial-type waste. The edible portions of these materials contain starch, lipids, proteins, polyphosphates, phosphates, vitamins and minerals which play important roles in meeting nutritional needs. The edible portion of food waste requires industrial food systems engaged in producing essential materials, chemicals and energy. Waste biomass, which can be evaluated as a renewable energy source, has become an increasingly important field of scientific research and industrial application not only for environmental and economic reasons, but also in terms of recovering waste and obtaining useful, economical, new, high value-added and natural products. The matter of separating, managing and disposing of food waste is a difficult issue. Food waste can arise at different stages such as food production, processing and consumption. Moreover, since certain portions of food products are inedible, these portions inevitably fall into the waste category. Within agricultural-industrial waste, grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables constitute an important group. The subject matter addresses the conversion of waste from these sources into pigment compounds, an important food additive, through biotechnological applications. What food waste and various agricultural product waste will be processed into depends on the waste composition, the production process applied, the production location and also the timing of waste generation.   Upon review of the literature, it is possible to reduce the application areas of food waste to four fundamental categories:

• Production of biogas and biofuel from food waste,
• Efficient recovery of various high value-added components contained in food waste,
• Conversion of food waste through microbial activity,
• Development of various bio-based food waste for wastewater treatment.

  Waste is a subject examined from economic and environmental perspectives. This waste category, which contains many varieties, significantly impacts human health, nature, health, the environment and the economy. The fact that food waste is open to utilization demonstrates that research in this area will intensify. Recycling and sustainability are no longer a matter of sensitivity but of necessity for the entire world. For this reason, recycling of all materials that transition very rapidly from consumable form to waste status, such as food, and obtaining resources from their waste, are of considerable importance. The efforts and employment given to this matter in our country in the near future, and the provision of new initiatives and solutions in this field, give us optimism that awareness is being created regarding the food waste issue.