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Processes
Special Issues
Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation
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Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Process Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 May 2024 | Viewed by 10755

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesca Blasi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Perugia, 06126 Perugia, Italy
Interests: lipids; antioxidants; gas-chromatography; vegetable extracts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Aurélie Schoubben

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy
Interests: controlled release; inhaled dry powders; drug physical modification; micro- and nanoparticles; drug targeting
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is scientifically evident that food demand has increased along with the production food waste and by-products, creating severe management problems and environmental pollution. Waste and by-products deriving from fruit and vegetable processing contain valuable hydrophilic and lipophilic bioactive compounds with potential health benefits (i.e., anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cardioprotective effects). The recovery of bioactive compounds involves extraction as the key step, which can be achieved through traditional or innovative methods. The latter, including ultrasound- and microwave-assisted extraction, have received considerable interest recently because they are eco-friendly and sustainable methods. Interestingly, with a view to the valorization of agri-food waste, vegetable waste and by-products could be used as fortifying ingredients of foodstuffs of both plant and animal origins. Undoubtedly, polymeric and solid lipid micro- and nanoparticles show high potential in a number of different areas. Their proven safety and the availability of scalable manufacturing techniques make them suitable to encapsulate both hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds. The aim of encapsulating bioative compounds is twofold: to improve its bioactive stability and to increase its biological availability. This Special Issue aims to collect the most recent research efforts addressing bioactive extraction and their manufacturing into nano- and microparticles. In view of their application as fortifying ingredients, low-cost materials and manufacturing technologies should be preferred.

This Special Issue on "Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation” aims to curate novel advances in the valorization of agri-food waste through the recovery of bioactives and the application of new sustainable technologies to address their encapsulation. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Development of innovative green-extraction methods to recover bioactives from waste;
  • Chemical-analytical characterization and evaluation of bioactivity of vegetable extracts;
  • Optimization of extraction processes to drive large-scale methods toward sustainability;
  • Advanced manufacturing techniques.

Dr. Francesca Blasi
Dr. Aurélie Schoubben
Guest Editors

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 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. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2400 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

  • bioactive compounds
  • biological activity
  • innovative extraction processes
  • waste
  • sustainability
  • by-products
  • green chemistry
  • circular economy
  • microencapsulation
  • nanoencapsulation
  • manufacturing methods
  • analytical characterization
  • process optimization
  • solid lipid particles
  • polymeric particles
  • stability enhancement

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 4476 KiB  
Article
Competitive Effect of Zinc and Cadmium on the Biosorption of Chromium by Orange Waste
by Ana Belén Pérez-Marín, Juan Francisco Ortuño, María Isabel Aguilar, Mercedes Lloréns and Víctor Francisco Meseguer
Processes 2024, 12(1), 148; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12010148 - 08 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1121
Abstract
Batch experiments were conducted to test orange waste (OW), an agricultural solid waste byproduct from the orange juice manufacturing industry, as adsorbent for binary solutions of Cd2+-Cr3+ and Zn2+-Cr3+. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the [...] Read more.
Batch experiments were conducted to test orange waste (OW), an agricultural solid waste byproduct from the orange juice manufacturing industry, as adsorbent for binary solutions of Cd2+-Cr3+ and Zn2+-Cr3+. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the point of zero charge (pHpzc) were used to identify the functional groups on the OW surface involved in biosorption. The biosorption equilibrium data for both binary-metal solutions were obtained and fitted to various isotherm models. The extended Sips and the non-modified Redlich-Peterson isotherm models gave the best fit for the experimental data. According to the extended Sips model, the maximum biosorption capacity of OW was 0.573 mmol·g−1 for Cd2+, 0.453 mmol·g−1 for Zn2+, and 1.96 mmol·g−1 for Cr3+. The sorption capacity dropped to 0.061 mmol·g−1 for Cd2+ and to 0.101 mmol·g1 for Zn2+ in their binary systems with Cr3+ for the higher initial metal concentrations in the solution. However, the maximum sorption capacity of chromium was only slightly affected by the presence of Cd2+ or Zn2+. For both binary systems, the presence of a second metal ion in the solution always conduces to a reduction in the sorption of the other metal in the solution. The presence of Cr3+ decreased the sorption of Cd2+ and Zn2+ more than vice versa. Conclusively, effective removal of Cr3+ ions from an aqueous solution can still be achieved in the presence of Cd2+ or Zn2+. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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12 pages, 1089 KiB  
Article
Recovering Polyphenols in Aqueous Solutions from Olive Mill Wastewater and Olive Leaf for Biological Applications
by Adrián Hernández-Fernández, Yolanda Garrido, Eduardo Iniesta-López, Antonia Pérez de los Ríos, Joaquín Quesada-Medina and Francisco José Hernández-Fernández
Processes 2023, 11(9), 2668; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11092668 - 06 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1059
Abstract
Olive leaf and olive mill wastewater are wastes which are produced in olive industry and can be used to obtain value-added products such as polyphenols. In this work, extracts of polyphenols from olive mill wastewater and olive leaf in an aqueous medium are [...] Read more.
Olive leaf and olive mill wastewater are wastes which are produced in olive industry and can be used to obtain value-added products such as polyphenols. In this work, extracts of polyphenols from olive mill wastewater and olive leaf in an aqueous medium are obtained and their composition in polyphenols were determined and compared with those obtained using the conventional extract agent (methanol–water). The antioxidant capacity of the aqueous extracts of olive mill wastewater and olive leaf were also analysed. It was observed that the olive mill wastewater extracted in water provides a similar content of phenolic compounds in the final extract compared to extraction with methanol–water, with the main polyphenols being hydrotyrosol and tyrosol (20.1 and 6.61 mg gdw−1). In the case of leaf extraction, the methanol-free extract (recovery in water after extraction with methanol–water) had a lower total phenol content compared to the methanolic extract, with the main polyphenol being oleuropein (22.73 and 9.05 mg gdw−1, for the methanol and methanol-free extract, respectively). However, both extracts obtained in aqueous solution present a similar antioxidant capacity at very diluted concentrations of the original extract, with IC50 values (half-maximal antioxidant concentration) of about 20 mg TS L−1. The antioxidant capacity of the extract in aqueous solution facilitates its application as an antioxidant in biological systems, like animal food, where the use of extracts based on organic solvents, like methanol, are not suitable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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13 pages, 1276 KiB  
Article
Vacuum-Packed Pork Sausages with Modified Casing Added with Orange Peel Extracts: Evaluating In Vitro Antioxidant Activity via Hyperspectral Imaging Coupled with Chemometrics
by Chao-Hui Feng
Processes 2023, 11(9), 2583; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11092583 - 29 Aug 2023
Viewed by 900
Abstract
The antioxidant activities (in vitro) of vacuum-packaged dry-cured sausages stored for 1 year, which were treated with varying concentrations of extracts from orange peel (EFOP) in a modification solution, were evaluated using a central composite design. The individual variables: soy lecithin concentration, soy [...] Read more.
The antioxidant activities (in vitro) of vacuum-packaged dry-cured sausages stored for 1 year, which were treated with varying concentrations of extracts from orange peel (EFOP) in a modification solution, were evaluated using a central composite design. The individual variables: soy lecithin concentration, soy oil concentration, treated time, lactic acid addition, EFOP addition, and dependent variable [i.e., in vitro antioxidant activity] were analyzed by response surface methodology. Among the 32 treatment combinations, treatment 26 (central point) exhibited a higher 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity compared to the control group (natural hog casing without modification). Spectral pre-treatments were applied to enhance the robustness of the model, and a partial least squares regression model (PLSRM) was fitted. The results of the response surface methodology indicated that the interactive effects of a high [soy lecithin concentration] × a high [EFOP addition] yielded a DPPH assay result of over 35%. The determination coefficients (R2 value) of the second-order polynomial model for the simultaneous effects on in vitro antioxidant activity reached 65.28%. The PLSRM developed using average reflectance data after the first derivation pre-treatment demonstrated a higher R2 value in the calibration group compared to the untreated data. The first principal component accounted for 77.39% of the overall attributes and effectively differentiated the sausages’ antioxidant activity from 31.88%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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12 pages, 687 KiB  
Article
Sunflower Oil Flavored by Spearmint through Conventional and Ultrasound-Assisted Maceration: Differences in Oxidative Stability, Microbial Contamination and Sensory Properties
by Xinjian Lu, Haoduo Yang, Yudong Meng and Dongying Wang
Processes 2022, 10(11), 2451; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10112451 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1386
Abstract
The preparation of flavored vegetable oils using spice and herb plants is considered to be an indispensable opportunity for the application of these plants. In the present exploration, sunflower oil (SFO) samples flavored by Mentha spicata L. (spearmint) were prepared using the maceration [...] Read more.
The preparation of flavored vegetable oils using spice and herb plants is considered to be an indispensable opportunity for the application of these plants. In the present exploration, sunflower oil (SFO) samples flavored by Mentha spicata L. (spearmint) were prepared using the maceration method (MM) and ultrasound-assisted maceration (UM). The antioxidant effects, sensory evaluation and the oxidative stability during accelerated storage; the physicochemical properties including the levels for acid value (AV), peroxide value (PV) and p-anisidine value (AnV); and the specific extinction values at 232 nm (K232) and 268 nm (K268) of the SFO samples were measured. The contents of beneficial ingredients including chlorophylls, carotenoids, polyphenols and tocopherols, and the micro-organism colonies for yeasts, molds, Listeria monocytogenes and Enterobacteriaceae bacteria were determined. The results show that the physicochemical properties, beneficial ingredients, antioxidant effects, sensory attributes and the oxidative stability in accelerated storage were greater in the flavored SFO sample than the control. Therefore, the SFO flavored by spearmint can be developed as flavored vegetable oils, and the ultrasound-assisted maceration can be widely employed in the preparation of flavored vegetable oils in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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12 pages, 1696 KiB  
Article
The Efficacy of Phenolic Compound Extraction from Potato Peel Waste
by Qin Xu, Shusheng Wang, Heather Milliron and Qingyou Han
Processes 2022, 10(11), 2326; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10112326 - 08 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2044
Abstract
As an agroindustrial waste product, potato peels contain valuable phenolic compounds that can be extracted before they are sent to the landfill. Based on previous work, this study focused on determining the efficacies of phenolic compound extraction from potato peels using conventional shaking [...] Read more.
As an agroindustrial waste product, potato peels contain valuable phenolic compounds that can be extracted before they are sent to the landfill. Based on previous work, this study focused on determining the efficacies of phenolic compound extraction from potato peels using conventional shaking extraction (CSE) and both direct ultrasound-assisted extraction (DUAE), and indirect ultrasound-assisted extraction (IUAE). The yield curve associated with each extraction method was measured and characterized. The maximum yield of phenolic compounds and its dependence on processing parameters were evaluated. The applicability of the Peleg model for describing the yield curve was evaluated. Based on the Peleg model, a recovery ratio was defined to calculate its corresponding extraction rate. This extraction rate, combined with the yield, can be used for describing the efficacy of an extraction method. Our results indicate that the ultrasound-assisted extraction methods were capable of extracting phenolic compounds at a given recovery ratio one or two orders of magnitude faster than the CSE method. Models described in the article are expected to be useful in evaluating the extraction efficacy of valuable compounds from various agricultural or agroindustrial waste. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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Review

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36 pages, 2345 KiB  
Review
Current Challenges in the Sustainable Valorisation of Agri-Food Wastes: A Review
by Cristina V. Berenguer, Carolina Andrade, Jorge A. M. Pereira, Rosa Perestrelo and José S. Câmara
Processes 2023, 11(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11010020 - 22 Dec 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3525
Abstract
In the upcoming years, the world will face societal challenges arising, in particular, from the impact of climate change and the inefficient use of natural resources, in addition to an exponential growth of the world population, which according to the United Nations (UN) [...] Read more.
In the upcoming years, the world will face societal challenges arising, in particular, from the impact of climate change and the inefficient use of natural resources, in addition to an exponential growth of the world population, which according to the United Nations (UN) estimations will be 9.8 billion in 2050. This increasing trend requires optimized management of natural resources with the use of value-added waste and a significant reduction in food loss and food waste. Moreover, the recent pandemic situation, COVID-19, has contributed indisputably. Along with the agri-food supply chain, several amounts of waste or by-products are generated. In most cases, these biomass wastes cause serious environmental concerns and high costs to enterprises. The valorisation of the agri-food loss and food industry wastes emerged as a useful strategy to produce certain value-added compounds with several potential applications, namely in the food, health, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and environmental fields. Therefore, in this review, some of the crucial sustainable challenges with impacts on the valorisation of agri-food loss/wastes and by-products are discussed and identified, in addition to several opportunities, trends and innovations. Potential applications and usages of the most important compounds found in food loss/waste will be highlighted, with a focus on the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, and the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Analytical and Technological Strategies for Agri-Food Waste Valorisation)
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