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34 Agri and Food Waste Valorization Through the Production of Biochemicals and Packaging Materials

A notable difference is that in developing and not-so-rich countries, wastage is

common at the preliminary stages of handling like production, transport, storage,

and processing due to the lack of proper infrastructure and technology, whereas in

medium and rich countries, food is wasted at the final stages, i.e. at distribution

and household levels, nevertheless contributing in almost equal proportion to the

total world food wastage. The causes of wastage vary across countries and sectors.

Although industrial level agri-food wastage is less, it offers a convenient model to

work out strategies to address the problem, since the sources and types of wastage

are homogenous and predictable [6]. Further, more often than not, handling these

wastes where they are generated makes perfect economic sense instead of transport-

ing to a centralized place [7].

34.2

Importance

The three strong reasons why valorization of AFW is important can be summarized

as:

●The ever-increasing population is putting undue pressure on our agriculture and

farming systems to address food shortages. Hence, preventing food wastages is

imperative [8].

●Food wastes also mean the wastage of precious resources used at all stages of pro-

duction [9] which could be at times as high as 23% [10] in some countries.

●Food wastes also lead to environmental concerns by generating greenhouse gasses

[11] because of the high organic content of the residues and effluents as they

undergo uncontrolled decomposition.

●Thus, valorization is equally important both for the industry and the environment.

This also makes the agri-food sector more responsible, sustainable and profitable.

Agri-food wastage can be classified as avoidable, probably avoidable and unavoid-

able waste [12]. These can be utilized as substrates for recovery of biochemicals, bio-

plastics, or for the production of renewable or recoverable energy. These come under

valorization (the recovery of beneficial compounds, products, or energy). AFWs can

also end up as landfills which will be classified as non-valorizable means [13].

In order to address the problem of food waste, it is important to prioritize solu-

tions according to a suggested waste hierarchy [14] with prevention, reuse, recycle,

recover and disposal being given preference in that order. Imbert [15] has analyzed

each of these in an elaborate manner.

34.3

Worldwide Initiatives

Researchers have been working on the problem of food processing with respect to

the environment since the 1990s [16]. However, concerted institutional effort toward

valorization of wastes is a relatively new development.

One of the earliest worldwide initiatives can be traced to AWARENET, the

Agro-Food Wastes Minimisation and Reduction Network, targeting the primary