Every year, the global food industry produces a significant number of wastes and by-products from a variety of sources. By-products from the food-processing sector are produced in large quantities, and because of their undesirable qualities, they are frequently wasted, causing economic, social, and environmental problems.
In the pursuit of a circular economy that reduces material use, redesigns materials, products, and services to be less resource intensive, and recaptures «waste» as a resource to manufacture new materials and products—by-products valorization recently received increased interest because they can be appropriately recycled to produce new value-added products.
For example, bioactive substances such as proteins, lipids, starches, trace elements, bioactive compounds and dietary fiber and phenolic compounds in the by-products of edible plants have certain nutritional and health care functions and have great potential in the production of related food additives.
Two researchers with the Institute of Energy Systems and Environment at Riga Technical University, Ilze Luksta and Krišs Spalviņš, have contributed to this increasing body of research on sustainability and the potential of food by-products.
Their article, «Methods for Extraction of Bioactive Compounds from Products: a Review,» was included in the latest issue of the scientific journal Environmental and Climate Technologies.
This review presents recently published literature in the field of by-products; and summarizes and compares various extraction methods (traditional methods and advanced methods), as well as products that are currently obtained using specific methods.
The authors concluded that advanced methods have some advantages over traditional methods in terms of extraction yield and time, but each method has its pros and cons, and it is possible to find and adapt the best extraction technology for each material. Several factors must be considered to determine which of these methods can efficiently produce high-value-added products from by-products, considering the problem of environmental pollution.
It is clear that the development of sustainable solutions for the management of byproducts and food waste is one of the main challenges of our society.
Learn more from the full scientific article here.
