Biotechnology for Zero Waste – Emerging Waste Management Techniques (Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain (editor) etc.)

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Bioconversion of Food Waste to Wealth – Circular

Bioeconomy Approach

Rajam Ramasamy¹and Parthasarathi Subramanian²

1Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (Deemed to be University), Department of Food

Technology, Krishnankoil, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, 626 126, India

2Riddet Institute, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand

28.1

Introduction

Around 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally and is equal to one-third of edible

part of the food produced for human consumption. Also, it was estimated that if the

one-fourth of the wasted food is saved, it could feed 870 million malnourished peo-

ple. Food wastes generated in developed countries from household, catering, retail,

and manufacturing industries cost around US$ 680 billion and US$ 310 billion in

developing countries. Global population is increased to 1 billion within next decade

and it is expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050 [1]. This growing world population

will demand more food, and this will make excess pressure on food supply chain,

thus becoming a challenge for global food security and supply. Food security will

become a key issue when people lack access to safe and nutritious food which may

be caused due to food unavailability, insufficient purchase power, and inappropriate

distribution [2]. Increased food production without sustainable waste management

strategies will result in increased greenhouse gas emissions due to additional land

use and increased waste production. Food waste being generated throughout the

food supply chain (Figure 28.1), which includes production, pre- and post-harvest

handling, processing and value addition, storage and distribution, retailing, prepa-

ration, cooking, and serving food, is termed as food supply chain waste [3].

According to FAO (2015), in developing countries, 80–90% of the food waste is

generated during pre- and post-harvesting and processing stages of the supply chain.

On the other hand, in developed countries, more than 40% of the food is wasted in

retail and consumption stages. Pfaltzgraff et al. [4] highlighted the agro-industrial

residues generated around the globe and the examples include olive mill residues,

waste vegetable oil, tomato pomace, wheat straw, whey, brewer’s spent grain,

pea pods, egg shells, spent coffee grounds, potato peels, sugarcane bagasse, grape

pomace, corn residue, orange peel, cocoa pods, cashew shell nut liquid, rice husk,

Biotechnology for Zero Waste: Emerging Waste Management Techniques, First Edition.

Edited by Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain and Ravi Kumar Kadeppagari.