Food Production, Food Waste and Sustainable Development
The human population is constantly growing; in March 2021 it counted approximately 7.85 billion people, but it is estimated that by 2050 it will be necessary to feed over nine billion. This data greatly concerns the European Environment Agency (Europe is one of the world’s largest food producers), because current food production systems have shown significant criticalities and caused serious environmental and social crises. While on one hand these systems are tolerated precisely to satisfy the growing global demand for food, on the other hand it is increasingly evident that the way we produce, market and consume food threatens our health and that of ecosystems.
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has exacerbated the economic, social and health crisis, raising particular concern, especially in countries with the highest levels of poverty, highlighting one of the most dramatic aspects of the current food crisis: the phenomenon of food waste.
Food production, food waste and sustainable development
Transforming food production, following the criteria of the circular economy, would allow steps forward towards achieving sustainable development goals in the food sector. The use of new technologies, material regeneration, and the creation of shorter supply chains represent essential starting points for achieving these objectives.
The agricultural and agro-industrial sectors undoubtedly represent the pillars of the Italian economy. There are many food products, at the basis of our culture and tradition, that can lend themselves to becoming a model of closed-cycle exploitation, aimed at enhancing food quality by recovering by-products and waste. Food waste, in fact, represents a source of high added-value substances that can be used as additives in nutraceutical productions, transformed into organic fertilizers and used in biofuel production. A typical example is represented by the tomato derivatives industry; during the processing of these, solid waste consisting of sorting scraps and extraneous plant material, especially seeds and peels, is obtained. It is possible to revalue this waste through the recovery of oils and pigments (lycopene and β-carotene), with high added value, which can be used as semi-finished products in the food industry. The oil present in the seeds represents about 36% of the dry matter and is characterized by a high concentration of pigments and essential fatty acids.
Use of new technologies in extractions from plant matrices
The use of new technologies in extractions from plant matrices represents, as mentioned previously, a fundamental aspect in the field of circular economy applied to food production.
The main extraction techniques currently used at industrial level, except for low-yield mechanical systems such as pressing, involve the use of organic solvents (hydrocarbons, alcohols, chlorinated solvents, etc.). The latter, while ensuring high efficiency in terms of extractive yield, involve, in most cases, a series of inconveniences:
- they are toxic or harmful to humans;
- they are flammable;
- they have a high environmental impact, because they give rise to special waste such as the exhausted matrix, saturated with the solvent used, and residues of the latter in the extracts.
Solvent extractions, therefore, while allowing recovery of high added-value substances from waste derived from food productions, generate hazardous waste, and this goes against sustainable development objectives.
A valid alternative to traditional extraction techniques, which does not contrast with circular economy criteria, could be provided by a recent and innovative Italian patent: High-efficiency solid-liquid extraction device and process (Patent by Dr. Garella Isidoro, n.0001396896 C.C.I.A.A. of Florence).
The method involves the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) as an alternative to the use of organic solvents normally used in extraction processes.
HFCs, such as R134a, are not harmful, toxic or flammable; moreover, being gaseous under normal conditions of use, they can be easily removed from both the extract and the exhausted matrix, without causing pollution and disposal problems with consequent low environmental impact.
This innovative extraction technology operates using HFCs in liquid state at room or sub-room temperature, avoiding unpleasant thermal degradation phenomena of the extracted substances, thus providing superior quality extracts.
Exploiting the state change from liquid to gas and vice versa, the proposed technology allows operation with a very reduced amount of solvent, comparable to the mass of the plant matrix to be treated, which is continuously regenerated during the extraction process and totally recovered at the end of it.
In essence, this innovative extraction technology gives the possibility to recover, both from the exhausted matrix and from the extract, the totality of the completely regenerated solvent used in the process, ensuring, at the same time, an exhaustive extraction of high-quality substances in short times.
