Special Issue "Food Wastes: Feedstock for Value-Added Products"
A special issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 February 2020.
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food waste (FW) is a global problem that has moved up the public and political agenda in recent years. It will grow in importance, especially given the need to feed the growing global population. Food is a precious commodity, and its production can be resource intensive. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), food loss (FL) is defined as “the decrease in quantity or quality of food”. Food waste is part of food loss, and refers to discarding or alternative (non-food) use of food that is safe and nutritious for human consumption along the entire food supply chain, from primary production to end-household consumer level. The European Project FUSIONS defines FW as ‘‘any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from (lost to or diverted from) the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed (including composted, crops ploughed in/not harvested, anaerobic digestion, bio-energy production, co-generation, incineration, disposal to sewer, landfill or discarded to sea).
Current estimates indicate that, globally, nearly 1.3 billion tons of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted throughout the food supply chain. In the European Union, food garbage is expected to increase from 89 million tons in 2006 to 126 million tons in 2020. The contribution of the household sector accounts for 42% of this total figure. FL and FW generation produces an impact at environmental, social, and economic levels.
Currently, most food wastes are recycled, mainly as animal feed and compost. The remaining quantities are incinerated and disposed of in landfills, causing serious emissions of methane (CH4), which is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) as a greenhouse gas and significantly contributes to climate change. Social impacts of FL and FW may be ascribed to ethical and moral dimensions within the general concept of global food security. Economic impacts are due to the costs related to food wastage and their effects on farmers and consumer incomes.
The EU waste framework directive 2008/98/EC defines the EU waste management hierarchy as: (a) prevention, (b) preparing for reuse, (c) recycling, (d) other recovery (e.g., energy recovery), and (e) disposal. Similarly, the Environmental Protection Agency defines the following hierarchy in relation to FW management: (a) source reduction; (b) feed hungry people; (c) feed animals; (d) industrial uses; (e) composting, incineration, or landfilling.
Preventing the over-production and over-supply of food are the first steps to be taken in reducing FW generation. In the subsequent steps, since FW is a reservoir of complex carbohydrates (i.e., starch, cellulose, and hemicellulose), proteins, lipids, etc., it can form the raw material for a large spectrum of commercially important products such as biofuels (i.e., bioethanol, bio-butanol, biodiesel), enzymes, organic acids, biopolymers, nutraceuticals, and dietary fibers. The implementation of the biorefinery concept could be an essential part of the successful valorization of FW. Producing a spectrum of bio-based products, FW biorefinery can complement fossil-based refinery to a certain extent and address the major drivers for bioeconomy viz. climate, resource security, and ecosystem services.
The goal of this Special Issue is to publish both recent innovative research results as well as review papers on food waste valorization for the production of value-added products.
Dr. Diomi Mamma
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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation 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 1000 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
- value-added products
- biorefinery
- integrated bioprocesses
- bioenergy
- biobased products
- platform chemicals
- biofuels
- bioethanol
- butanol
- bio-diesel
- enzymes
- biopolymers
- organic acids
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Authors: Vassileios Varelas
Abstract: Background. About one-third of the food produced annually world-wide ends up as waste. A minor part of this waste is used for biofuel and compost production, but most is landfilled, causing environmental damage. Mass production of edible insects for human food and livestock feed seems a sustainable solution to meet demand for animal-based protein, which is expected to increase due to rapid global population growth. Scope and approach. The aim of this review was to compile up-to-date information on rearing of edible insects on food wastes as also the upgraded bioconversion of food streams to added value food and feed ingredients. The potential impact of this rearing process in achieving an environmentally friendly and sustainable food industry was also assessed. Key findings and conclusions. Food wastes comprises a huge nutrient stock that could be valorised to feed nutritionally flexible edible insects. Artificial diets based on food by-products for black soldier fly, house fly, mealworm and house cricket mass production seem very promising. A part of the sustainability of food sector could be based on the valorisation of food waste for edible insect mass production. Further research on functional properties of reared edible insects, safety control aspects and life cycle assessments is needed for an insect-based food industry.
Keywords: edible insects; food wastes; insect mass production; sustainability