Recycling and reuse of food waste

The necessity to carry out a proper utilization of food waste is underlined by the amounts of resources needed for food production, processing and transport. Despite the recommendation to utilize organic material in accordance to a cascading use, energetic use is predominantly carried out. Organic material, however, contains various secondary raw materials, such as functionalized organic compounds. Organic compounds contain unique functional groups which are urgently needed to cope with the limitation of fossil resources. However, an industrial utilization process solely relying on wasted food as feedstock seems paradox as it is based on an unsustainable behavior. Actions against the wastage of food consequently have an impact on the feedstock availability of utilization processes. It is assumed that due to economic reason more edible food fractions are processed for instance in biorefineries for the production of high-value products.