Valorization of Vegetable Food Waste and By-Products Through Fermentation Processes

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology 2020-10, Vol.11, p.581997-581997
• Main Authors: Sabater, Carlos, Ruiz, Lorena, Delgado, Susana, Ruas-Madiedo, Patricia, Margolles, Abelardo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: bioeconomy; by-product Valorization; food waste; lactic acid bacteria; microbial fermentation; Microbiology
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.581997

There is a general interest in finding new ways of valorizing fruit and vegetable processing by-products. With this aim, applications of industrial fermentation to improve nutritional value, or to produce biologically active compounds, have been developed. In this sense, the fermentation of a wide variety of by-products including rice, barley, soya, citrus, and milling by-products has been reported. This minireview gives an overview of recent fermentation-based valorization strategies developed in the last 2 years. To aid the designing of new bioprocesses of industrial interest, this minireview also provides a detailed comparison of the fermentation conditions needed to produce specific bioactive compounds through a simple artificial neural network model. Different applications reported have been focused on increasing the nutritional value of vegetable by-products, while several lactic acid bacteria and Penicillium species have been used to produce high purity lactic acid. Bacteria and fungi like Bacillus subtilis, Rhizopus oligosporus , or Fusarium flocciferum may be used to efficiently produce protein extracts with high biological value and a wide variety of functional carbohydrates and glycosidases have been produced employing Aspergillus, Yarrowia , and Trichoderma species. Fermentative patterns summarized may guide the production of functional ingredients for novel food formulation and the development of low-cost bioprocesses leading to a transition toward a bioeconomy model.