Harnessing the Economic, Nutritive, and Commercial Potential of Food Waste through Development of Sustainable Materials and Product Development/Innovation

Dear Colleagues,

Food processing industries generate a tremendous amount of solid waste as the by-product. Pomace is the waste produced after the juice from the fruits is removed. There is considerable economic and health incentive to develop products containing naturally occurring biologically active compounds (BACs) and processes for efficient by-product and waste utilization. These wastes could be the excellent raw material of the recovery of the BACs such as pectin, lipids, and polyphenols, etc. Thus, there is a need for utilization of these food wastes for eco-innovation focusing on a “zero waste” society and economy where wastes could be utilized as raw materials. On the other hand, consumers that demand the production of “clean,” “natural” and “eco/green” label food products are also willing to spend a significant amount of money on such products. Consumers demand natural ingredients, which they expect to be safe and health-promoting due to their increasing awareness of diet-related health problems. Food processing fractions (pomace, skin peel, seeds) contain BACs such as flavanols, phenolics, alkaloids, glycosides, volatile oils, dietary fiber, mucilage, gums, and oleoresins. These BACs could be formulated into functional products that possess beneficial effects on human health due to their antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to collect outstanding research, review and perspective articles highlighting new, original development and/or applications in overcoming the social problem of food waste.

Topics of interest to this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Novel technologies and processes in food waste development
• Functional product development from food waste
• Market research, data analytics related to food waste
• Approaches to overcome food waste from sources
• Entrepreneurship in food waste

Prof. Siddharth S. Kesharwani
Guest Editor

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• food waste development
• applied sustainable materials
• functional product development from food waste
• sustainable technology development
• product innovation