Food manufacturing waste forms a large but unexploited reserve in the world agri-food systems. This review critically analyzes advanced pathways of valorization that go beyond energy-intensive and conventional disposal and low-value recovery strategies to the integrated and high-efficiency utilization of resources. Multi-product recovery from food processing residues rich in polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, polyphenols, and minerals has a chemical and functional basis, supported by green extraction technology, fermentation-based bioconversion models, and integrated biorefinery models. New non-thermal and low-energy methods are more selective, less degrading to bioactives, and more sustainable. Zero-waste biorefinery approaches can be used to recover high-value compounds, functional ingredients, biomaterials, bioenergy, and agricultural inputs in a sequential manner, balancing valorization strategies with circular bioeconomy concepts. The review also assesses sustainability and techno-economic impacts by comparing the significance of life-cycle assessment, solvent and energy recovery, and regulatory and industrial scalability. Although the laboratory and pilot-scale results were promising, critical gaps remain in the field of validation at industrial scale, standardized indicators of sustainability, and harmonization of hybrid technologies. There are also more opportunities to use digitalization and processes optimization tools to optimize the efficiency and feedstock variability. In summary, the more developed valorization pathways introduce a business case of changing the current waste of food manufacturing into a variety of valuable products, which can support the creation of sustainable food production systems and circular resource management. This work combines the novel technologies of green extraction methods, multi-product biorefinery approaches and sustainability-focused process evaluation into one framework for food waste valorization, which is a feature that is not found in current reviews. • Advanced valorization of food manufacturing waste streams was reviewed. • Green extraction enables selective bioactive recovery. • Integrated biorefineries support zero-waste strategies. • Non-thermal methods preserve functional compounds. • Life-cycle and techno-economic impacts critically assessed.
Obayomi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.