Author(s): Dinesh Kumar¹ Dr. Abhinav Srivastava²

Abstract:

The rapid expansion of food-processing industries has resulted in the generation of substantial quantities of organic solid waste, including fruit peels, vegetable residues, seeds, pomace, husks, bran, spent grains and other processing by-products. Conventionally, these residues are treated primarily as waste and are frequently disposed of through landfilling, dumping, composting or low-value utilisation. However, food-processing residues constitute complex biological matrices containing numerous primary and secondary metabolites with potentially valuable functional properties. The present study investigates the functional potential of metabolites occurring in organic solid waste generated by selected food-processing units. Particular attention is given to phenolic compounds, flavonoids, carbohydrates, proteins, organic acids, pigments, dietary fibres and other bioactive constituents.

Organic solid waste samples representing fruit, vegetable, cereal and mixed food-processing residues were subjected to physicochemical characterisation, extraction and metabolite screening. Functional properties were evaluated through total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, antioxidant activity and selected antimicrobial assays. Considerable variation was observed among different waste categories. Fruit-processing residues demonstrated comparatively high concentrations of phenolic and flavonoid compounds and correspondingly strong antioxidant potential, whereas cereal residues represented an important source of carbohydrates, proteins and dietary fibre. Vegetable-processing residues also contained appreciable amounts of pigments, phenolics and organic acids. The observed association between phenolic concentration and antioxidant activity indicates the potential contribution of secondary metabolites to the functional characteristics of these residues.

The findings demonstrate that organic solid waste from food-processing industries should not necessarily be regarded as an unusable environmental burden. Instead, it can potentially serve as a renewable feedstock for recovering functional ingredients for food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnological applications. The study therefore supports the transition from conventional waste-disposal practices towards metabolite recovery, resource valorisation and circular bioeconomy approaches. .

Keywords:

Food-processing waste; organic solid waste; metabolites; phenolic compounds; flavonoids; antioxidants; waste valorisation; bioactive compounds; circular bioeconomy..

DOI: 10.61165/sk.publisher.v13i8.1

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Valorisation of Food-Processing Organic Solid Waste: Assessment of Functional Metabolites and their Potential Industrial Applications

Pages:1-12