Extraction, Chemistry and Utilization of active ingredients from Agri-Food Wastes & Byproducts: A Scientific Approach Towards their Valorization

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reported that food wastes have created significantly higher “carbon footprints”. Further, FAO has estimated a post-harvest loss of up to one-third of all the food produced, which is estimated at more than US$1 trillion annually. To achieve and to ensure the success of the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals), appropriate steps must be taken to minimize or utilize the food wastes/byproducts generated in the agri-food sector for value addition and valorization. In the present global scenario, the sustainable utilization of agri-food waste and/or by-products to produce value-added products for potential applications in food, pharmaceutical or cosmetic industries can provide additional income opportunities. To explore the huge potential of these wastes or byproducts the studies on the extraction, chemistry, and utilization of active ingredients from Agri-Food Wastes & Byproducts needs to be taken under the umbrella of research to highlight the untapped active ingredients present {fatty acids, organic acids, phytonutrients, prebiotics, nutraceutical valued bioactive compounds, tannins, polyphenols, vitamins(A&E), flavonoids, flavanols, essential minerals, volatiles, essential oils, anthocyanins and pigments} in these otherwise waste materials. In this context, the availability of novel technologies along with sustainable methods to characterize, study the chemistry of active ingredients is very much timely.

This Research Topic will try to explore the novel methods being used across the globe and collect all information in one place to make it easier/available to researchers, readers, industry, and academia for future research.

Extraction, Chemistry and Utilization of active ingredients from Agri-Food Wastes & Byproducts: A Scientific Approach Towards their Valorization
Topics of interest for the special issue include, but are not restricted to the following areas:

Utilization of Novel Extraction techniques for extraction of active ingredients from Agri-Food wastes:
• Pressure based extraction technologies.
• Electric-field based extraction technologies.
• Non-thermal extraction technologies.
• Pulsed electric field extraction.
• Ultrasound assisted extraction.
• Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction.
• Performance of extraction methods on the base of energy consumption and quality of recovered compound.

Screening and quantification of the active ingredients using advanced techniques:
• Chromatography based characterization of recovered active ingredients from food waste.

Physicochemical, antioxidant, and therapeutic properties of active ingredients:
• Emulsion, surface and rheological characteristics of the oils recovered from food waste.
• Antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties of the active ingredients recovered from food waste.

Novel delivery systems active ingredients:
• Carbohydrate and or protein-based delivery systems.
• Interaction of extracted active ingredients with other components of the delivery system.
• Stability of the active ingredients in the delivery system, stability evaluation based on the in-vivo and in-vitro studies.

Utilization of active ingredients in the development of novel functional foods and to study their impact on food quality and safety:
• Application of active ingredients in food formulation and ingredients.
• Application of active ingredients in food products such as bakery, dairy, meat, poultry.
• Stability of active ingredients during processing.

We would also like to acknowledge that Dr. Hilal Makroo (Department of Food Technology, Islamic University of Science & Technology, India) acted as a Topic Coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal of this Research Topic.