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Green Extraction Technologies and Analytical Strategies for Sustainable Food By-Products Valorisation: Food-Health Relationships in Sustainable Agro-Food Systems

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 12224

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Dr. Dario Donno

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Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Science, University of Torino, Largo Braccini 2, Grugliasco, 10095 Turin, Italy
Interests: plant foods; agrifood application and its nutritional properties; analytical strategies for phytochemical and nutritional characterization
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Dear Colleagues,

Food waste valorization and re-use strategies, rather than conventional food waste processing (i.e. incineration or composting), are becoming more and more popular, and they are commonly named as “2nd generation food waste management”. These strategies are particularly interesting for food processing companies because the valorization of food and food-supplement by-products could have a significant economic impact for the producers, and it could be an important innovation in this field.

Green procedures are aimed at shortening processing time, reducing solvents consumption, and decreasing pollution, and they are, as much as possible, energy-saving and cost-saving. The use of green extraction technologies in the food industry has recently attracted attention, above all due to the numerous advantages of this technique in food-processing (i.e., filtration, defoaming, degassing, cutting), food preservation (i.e., enzyme and microorganism inactivations), and natural product-extraction. Moreover, the solvents utilized in green extractions are biograde solvents produced from biomasses such as wood, starch, vegetables, and fruits.

Innovative and eco-compatible strategies to recycle food by-products, which have proven to remain rich in phytochemicals and bioactive compounds, should be developed as an alternative to incineration or composting, in order to obtain high added-value products in sustainable agro-food systems.

Dr. Dario Donno
Guest Editor

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Keywords

green procedures
re-use strategies
food by-products
eco-compatible analytical strategies
food–waste–health relationships
by-products phytochemical composition

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1961 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Extraction and Use of Natural Bioactive Compounds from the Waste Management Process of Castanea spp. Bud-Derivatives: The FINNOVER Project

by Dario Donno, Federica Turrini, Raffaella Boggia, Maddalena Guido, Giovanni Gamba, Maria Gabriella Mellano, Isidoro Riondato and Gabriele L. Beccaro

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10640; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410640 - 19 Dec 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2853

Abstract

The FINNOVER project provides a technical and economic path for the creation of new supply chains, or their development, for the sustainable extraction and utilization of natural biologically active molecules. In this research, a green extraction method and re-use strategy of botanical by-products are developed and used to obtain value-added products as an ecological alternative to waste composting or incineration. It was applied to the production of Castanea spp. bud-derivatives (a specific category of food supplements derived from plant material) and their by-products. This study aimed to compare the phytochemical composition of Castanea spp. bud-preparations (herbal preparations from buds and sprouts) with the extracts derived from the bud-waste management process. Bioactive compounds were extracted by maceration in hydroglyceroalcoholic solution (traditional method) and by a green extraction technique (Pulsed Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction—PUAE) and identified and quantified by HPLC methods obtaining a specific chromatographic profile. PUAE extracted a total content of 160.42 mg/100 g FW, a good amount if compared to the relative commercial product (1276.17 mg/100 g FW). About 13% of the chemical content of Castanea spp. bud-preparations was maintained in the by-product extracts. This research showed that PUAE may be considered as a sustainable alternative to waste management based on incineration or composting. This study could be considered by the industries for the development of new products for the market derived from the bud-derivative processing waste. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Extraction Technologies and Analytical Strategies for Sustainable Food By-Products Valorisation: Food-Health Relationships in Sustainable Agro-Food Systems)

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12 pages, 845 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Croton argyrophyllus Kunth Essential Oil-Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles: Evaluation of Release Profile, Antioxidant Activity and Cytotoxicity in a Neuroblastoma Cell Line

by Eliana B. Souto, Patricia Severino, Conrado Marques, Luciana N. Andrade, Alessandra Durazzo, Massimo Lucarini, Atanas G. Atanasov, Soukaina El Maimouni, Ettore Novellino and Antonello Santini

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7697; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187697 - 17 Sep 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2154

Abstract

The essential oil from Croton argyrophyllus Kunth is known for its antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, and anticancer activities, and is recognized as a source of phytochemicals for potential use in pharmaceutic and food sectors. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) have been produced to load Croton argyrophyllus (CA) Kunth essential oil (_CAEO) and its antioxidant properties evaluated in vitro as a new approach for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Cetyl palmitate SLN loading _CAEO (_CAEO-SLN) with a mean particle size of 201.4 ± 2.3 nm (polydispersity index 0.211) have been produced by hot high-pressure homogenisation. The release of the oil followed the Korsmeyers-Peppas model. The risk of lipid peroxidation has been determined by applying the production of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) standard assay. The antioxidant activity was determined by the capacity of the antioxidants existing in _CAEO to scavenge the stable radical DPPH•. The cytotoxicity of CA Kunth essential oil-loaded SLN (_CAEO-SLN) was evaluated in a human cell line SH-SY5Y (derived from human neuroblastoma) by determining the reduction of the yellow dye 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT). Both free essential oil (fEO) and loaded essential oil (_CAEO-SLN) were demonstrated to inhibit the Fenton reaction. _CAEO-SLN showed DPPH• radical scavenging capacity. The loading of the oil into cetyl palmitate SLN reduced the risk of cytotoxicity. Full article

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18 pages, 1069 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Contract Design for Enhancing Green Food Material Production Effort with Asymmetric Supply Cost Information

by Xiaoying Li and Qinghua Zhu

Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 2119; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12052119 - 09 Mar 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2555

Abstract

In order to improve green performance and achieve sustainability goals, food companies see the need to adopt green supply chain management. However, ensuring a green supply is a tough task since food companies do not always have full information of their suppliers’ efforts in improving their green performance. This information asymmetry issue will lead the food producers to make poor decisions and cause a profit loss. Therefore, to fill this research gap, this study investigates a two-stage supply chain, which consists of one dominated food producer and a food supplier who has private knowledge of its green food material producing (GFMP) cost. To figure out how green performance is the major parameter that influences the decision-making of supply chain members under information asymmetry, this study first expands demand functions for both a food supplier and a producer, considering their influence on the green degree of the food products and associated consumer acceptance. It is found that under certain conditions, information sharing will improve the supplier’s green performance and increase the food producer’s profit. This study then presents the prerequisite of green cost information sharing by the food supplier. Furthermore, a newly designed menu of contracts, which combine the wholesale price contract and cost sharing contract, is proposed for the asymmetric information case to incentivize the food supplier to disclose the green effort information and improve the environmental and economic performance of the food supply chain. Numerical experiments are conducted through a case analysis to illustrate and validate the proposed models. Full article

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31 pages, 4889 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

The Effect of Botanical Extracts Obtained through Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction on White Head Cabbage (Brassica Oleracea L. Var. Capitata L.) Seedlings Grown under Controlled Conditions

by Katarzyna Godlewska, Anita Biesiada, Izabela Michalak and Paweł Pacyga

Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1871; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051871 - 02 Mar 2020

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4067

Abstract

This research presents the possibility of using innovative botanical extracts as biostimulants of plant growth to improve plant nutritional value, growth, and development. It is important to increase agricultural production but this process should be carried out in a sustainable way, without causing risks for both the environment and consumers. For this reason, we have focused on the use of 14 natural raw materials and ultrasound assisted extraction for the production of biostimulants. Results proved that higher plants can be used to obtain valuable products for the application in modern horticulture and agriculture. For instance, extract based on Urtica dioica L. showed the highest biostimulatory properties: in the group sprayed with 0.1% extract cabbage seedlings were longer by 31%, while with 1.0% extract of Polygonum aviculare L. roots were longer by 72% than in the control group treated with water. Extracts based on Equisetum arvense L. (0.5%) and Urtica dioica L. (leaf) (0.1%) increased the fresh weight of sprouts by 113% and 112%, respectively. The highest root weight was observed in groups treated with Equisetum arvense L. (0.5%), Polygonum aviculare L. (0.5%), and Urtica dioica L. (leaf) (2.5%)—heavier by 207%, 206%, and 205%, respectively. Most of biostimulants increased the content of pigments involved in photosynthesis (e.g. 156% more chlorophyll for 0.1% Hypericum perforatum L. extract), decreased the content of polyphenols (e.g. 47% less for 2.5% Trifolium pretense extract), and showed a varied impact on antioxidant activity. There is an increasing interest in botanical extracts due to their high content of biologically active compounds and wide variety of application possibilities. Full article

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