Valorizing food waste to wellness: conventional vs. green extraction of food by-products

Food waste is a growing global concern due to the loss of essential nutrients and associated environmental impacts. Upcycling food waste into functional ingredients and nutraceuticals supports sustainability, wellness, and the circular bioeconomy. This review presents and compares conventional and green extraction technologies, including solvent extrac-tion, enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, ultrasound-assisted, microwave-assisted, and pulsed electric field tech-niques, for recovering bioactive compounds from food by-products. Green extraction approaches are emphasized for their ability to enhance yield and purity while reducing chemical use, energy consumption, and environmental burden. The review also explores the role of biotechnological innovations and artificial intelligence in optimizing extraction processes, improving scalability, and ensuring economic feasibility. Furthermore, it addresses current challenges, including regulatory barriers, consumer acceptance, and technological limitations, that hinder large-scale implementation. This work under-scores the valorization of food by-products into wellness-oriented formulations and highlights the potential of sustainable extraction technologies to transform food waste into high-value resources, contributing to global goals on sustainable production, health promotion, and environmental conservation

Dergi

3 BIOTECH

Yıl

2026

Cilt

16

Sayı

4

ISSN

2190-572X

eISSN

2190-5738

DOI

10.1007/s13205-026-04752-9

WoS UID

WOS:001714587700004