Conversion of Food Wastes and by-Products

Food and beverage production is an industry with the main raw materials generally obtained from plant and animal sources and the industry has always aimed to convert these raw materials to a value added products. During this conversion processes, voluminous and serious amounts of food wastes and by-products are generated. Unfortunately, one-third of the global food production is wasted worldwide every year [1]. Vandermeersch et al. [2] explained the effects of such a high amount of food waste generation considering there different approaches, for instance crop losses during harvest or storage (economic), hunger in low-income countries (social), and the deprivation of natural resources without accomplishing its final purpose (environmental). FAO [3] reported seriously worrisome findings about food wastes, for example every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). Memon [4], Sakai et al. [5] suggested 3R’s concept, i.e., Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to overcome food waste issue throughout the world.