From Food Waste to Valuable Resources

Food waste is one of the major sustainability challenges facing our society. While preventing food waste should always be the first priority, not all food waste can be avoided. Food is lost during processing, handling, cooking and transportation — even when efforts are made to move towards zero-waste systems.

But what if food waste is not simply waste?

A growing area of research is exploring how unavoidable food waste can be transformed into something valuable. This approach, known as food waste valorization, focuses on converting waste streams into useful products, materials, bioactive compounds and sources of energy.

A comprehensive review by Aniruddha Sarker, Raju Ahmmed, S. M. Ahsan, Juwel Rana, Mithun Kumar Ghosh and Rakhi Nandi explores this potential and describes food waste as both a global problem and a hidden opportunity for value-added product conversion. The authors highlight that food waste can contain valuable bioactive molecules and can also serve as a potential source of bioenergy.

The review examines a range of advanced and sustainable approaches for managing food waste, with particular attention to integrated biorefinery strategies. These approaches aim to recover as much value as possible from food waste instead of treating it solely as something that needs to be discarded.

Importantly, the authors also point out that advanced food waste valorization technologies have so far been more widely applied in developed countries, while significant amounts of food waste remain underutilized elsewhere. Expanding research, innovation and appropriate technologies could therefore play an important role in addressing food waste on a global scale.

Turning waste into resources can also contribute to a more circular food system. By recovering valuable materials, compounds and energy from food waste, valorization can help reduce the environmental burden associated with disposal while creating new opportunities for resource recovery. The authors connect these approaches with broader United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including responsible consumption and production, zero hunger and affordable and clean energy.

Want to learn more? The scientific review A Comprehensive Review of Food Waste Valorization for the Sustainable Management of Global Food Waste by Sarker and colleagues provides a detailed overview of current technologies, opportunities and challenges in turning food waste into valuable resources.

The full scientific paper is open access and can be downloaded through ResearchGate. Read and download the scientific paper on ResearchGate