ABSTRACT
Food security and the sustainability of the environment are two pressing issues that need intensive research to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3: halving food waste and reducing food loss by 2030. The food supply chain, from agricultural production to household consumption, generates a huge amount of food waste. Developed countries produce a lot of waste from the food industry. Food industries such as fruit and vegetable, distillery, milk, meat and poultry, oil industry, etc., are some of the major industries that generate a significant amount of waste. Various environmental issues associated with the generation and disposal of different types of waste must be explored in depth so that sustainable and holistic solutions can be developed. Waste from the food industry can be valorized into numerous beneficial products that increase the economic value of waste itself. Through various valorization methods such as fermentation, composting, pyrolysis, gasification, briquetting, synthesis of biocomposites, anaerobic digestion, etc., food waste can transform into various value-added products such as biopolymers, biofuels, food supplements, biochemicals, etc. According to the Environmental Protection Act hierarchy for food waste management, composting and biofuel production are the most preferred approaches for food waste. Most of the food waste consists of lignocellulosic material that can be used to produce biofuels and act as suitable substrates for the compositing process. This chapter discusses the various types of food industry waste and their potential for valorization. Furthermore, recent developments in the production of biofuels and compositing-based by-products and associated challenges, with their possible sustainable solutions, have been discussed to raise the economic viability and eco-friendly management of food industry waste.
