Compounds Derived from Food Waste: Valorization, Functional Applications, and Circular Bioeconomy Solutions
A Special Issue of Compounds (ISSN 2673-6918).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2027 | Viewed by 45
Editor
Interests: phytochemistry at the edge of polymer science; resin extraction of phytochemicals from plants; natural colorants; non-toxic antifouling protection; natural pesticides; functional foods from the new generation of super-berries; effect of cultural management of super-fruits and specialty crops on their phytochemical composition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food loss and waste are major sustainability challenges. Despite advances in food production and supply chains, large quantities of food are lost during harvesting, processing, distribution, retail, and consumption. This waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, depletes land and water resources, and squanders raw materials. At the same time, food waste contains valuable compounds, including polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, anthocyanins, proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, lipids, organic acids, and minerals. Consequently, food waste is increasingly viewed not as a disposal problem but as a source of bioactive molecules, renewable carbon, and functional materials for the circular bioeconomy. Advances in green chemistry, biorefinery technologies, sustainable extraction, fermentation, and biomass conversion have enabled the recovery of compounds for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural, environmental, and energy applications.
Recovering bioactive compounds from food waste is now a rapidly expanding research area. Fruits, vegetables, cereals, dairy, and marine by-products are rich sources of antioxidants, phenolic compounds, bioactive peptides, and dietary fiber, with applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Improved analytical tools, including metabolomics, spectroscopy, chromatography, and chemometrics, continue to enhance compound characterization and discovery.
Natural colorants from processing residues, such as anthocyanins, betalains, carotenoids, and chlorophyll derivatives, are increasingly replacing synthetic dyes, with current research focused on extraction, stabilization, encapsulation, and formulation. Food-waste-derived extracts also exhibit antimicrobial, antioxidant, antibiofilm, and antifouling activities, supporting their use as natural preservatives, edible coatings, active packaging, and agricultural products such as biopesticides, biofungicides, and biostimulants. Beyond food and agriculture, biomass-derived compounds are used in water treatment and industrial applications.
This Special Issue welcomes studies on the identification, extraction, characterization, modification, functionality, and applications of chemically defined compounds from food waste and agro-industrial residues, as well as biomass conversion and circular bioeconomy strategies. Submissions must emphasize specific compounds, compound classes, chemically characterized extracts, or molecular transformations; manuscripts focused primarily on waste management or engineering fall outside the scope.
Dr. Victoria V. Volkis
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Compounds is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- food waste valorization
- waste-to-value technologies
- agro-industrial residues
- natural antioxidants
- nutraceuticals
- phytochemicals
- natural food colorants
- antimicrobial compounds
- antifouling agents
- natural pesticides
- biomass valorization
- bioenergy
- biofuels
- biogas production
- biochar
- waste-to-energy
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