Final exam project:

Waste minimization and utilization in the food industry

Submitted by

Kashaf Aslam

PFSF15M020

M.Sc. (Hons). Food Science and technology

2nd Semester

Submitted to:

Dr. Tasneem Kauser

Course code:

FST-707

Course Title:

Food industrial waste management

Institute of food science and nutrition (IFSN)

University of Sargodha, Sargodha
Pakistan
 Waste minimization and utilization in the food industry

Processing of berries, and extraction of valuable compounds from juice-

processing by- products

Abstract:

This study is concentrated on the processing of berries into fruit juices from the point of view of
waste minimization and environmental best-practice technologies. Environmental best practice
technologies goal is to fulfill the consumer demand, while the production procedure is optimized
in order to have the slightest influence on the environment. The optimization comprises the
reduced utilization of raw materials, less energy and water use, while, as a result less process
waste and effluent is generated. Although, in the process design or re-design, specific care is to
be given to safety. As a part of the best-practice technologies the more cost-effective and
environmentally friendly preservation of the fruit juices by pressure driven membrane processes
will be introduced, the implementation of environmental best-practice technologies in fruit juice
processing for waste minimization; and development of solid waste utilization methods that are
economic, effective ,and environmentally friendly.

1. Introduction

Environmental legislation has meaningfully subsidized to the introduction of sustainable waste

management practices all over the European Union. For instance, the Landfill Directive forbids
disposal of unprocessed organic waste starting from January 2005. By the year of 2010, organic
waste disposal has to be reduced by 80 % (European Council 1999). To this end, the Finnish
National Waste Plan prescribes that, by the year of 2005, the utilization rate of food industry
waste has to be upturned to a minimum of 70 % (Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish
Environmental Institute 1999). Seeing the challenges in the area of food industry, struggles are
to be made to optimize production or manufacturing technologies to decrease the amount of
waste.
2. Finnish berries and their processing

The Nordic climate and geographical conditions of Finland allow the crop growing of the
berries relatively than the fruits. These berries have been a portion of the Finnish diet for eras.
The ingestion of berries and berry foodstuffs (juices, jams, marmalades, jellies, porridges) is
certainly very much in the Finland with the most used berries being bilberries, lingon berries,
cloudberries, and cranberries. Both cultivated and wild berries are unpolluted and low in energy,
and they are also an important source of antioxidant vitamins and fiber. Berries also holds
various bio-active constitutes, like as of phenolic phytochemicals (flavonoids, phenolic acids,
polyphenols) (Häkkinen et al. 1999.)

It has been well-known that ingesting of fruits rich in phytochemicals aids to evade coronary
heart disease (Hertog et al. 1993), stroke (Keli et al. 1996) and the lung cancer (Knekt et al.
1997). Notable are also the antibacterial properties of berries. The cloudberry (Rubus
chamaemorus), raspberry (Rubus idaeus), and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and crowberry
(Empetrum nigrum) were operative against all of the bacterial strains established. Bog bilberry
(V. uliginosum) reserved all the gram-positive bacteria, but not gram-negative E . coli, S .
aureus, B . subtilis and M.luteus (Rauha et al. 2000).

Flavonol content of Finnish berries (Häkkinen et al. 1999)

3. Waste minimization in the waste management hierarchy

The main purpose of waste legislation is the anticipation of the waste generation. Waste
prevention refers to three types of practical actions, i.e.

 Strict avoidance
 Reduction at source
 Products re-use.

However, waste avoidance does not only contain the reduction of absolute waste amounts but
also anticipation of hazards and risks because safety is also of major alarm. Bearing in mind the
waste management options, at the top of the hierarchy stands waste minimization that includes
(Riemer & Kristoffersen 1999)

 Waste prevention i.e. reduction of waste by application of more efficient

production technologies;
 Internal recycling of production waste;
 Source-oriented improvement of waste quality, e.g. substitution of hazardous
substances;
 Re-use of products or parts of products, for the same or other purpose
 Waste minimization vs. waste management measures (Riemer & Kristoffersen 1999)

4. The environmental impacts of the food sector

Despite the fact it is right that the principle of waste prevention is unanimously accepted, the
practice has insulated far behind. Food industry will also have to focus on the waste prevention
as well as utilization of process wastes. Presentation of hygienic technologies enhances the safety
and quality of the product as well as decreasing the energy requirements and environmental
impact of the food industry.

The foremost environmental influences of the food sector are

 Aquatic
 Atmospheric and
 Solid waste emissions.
By selecting the appropriate separation technology, wastewater treatment is usually carried out
and is applied in process installations. The atmospheric emissions are primarily caused by
extensive energy use. The food industry put away a great promise of energy for heating
buildings, processes, and process water, for refrigeration and for the transference of raw
materials and products. The increased share of renewable energy sources could gradually lessen
the volume of conservative fossil fuel utilization.

Solid by-products and wastes are also engendered in higher extents in the food sector. The
central action method of solid wastes is, at present, composting. Recovery and re-use of by-
products and wastes as raw materials is additional option. However, microbiological quality and
safety is always of most important concern.

Analysis of fruit processing and evaluation of waste minimization potential

From an environmental opinion, berries processing yields large volume of the sewages and the
solid waste. In fruit juice production large quantity of the water are used, mostly for the cleaning
purposes. Due to hygienic and food safety contemplations, most of the utilized water is drinking
water quality and the amount of water effluent can be up to 10 m3/tonnes of raw material. The
water is used for raw material washing, plant and equipment cleaning, and other industrial
utilization. The subsequent wastewater has a higher organic matter, comprising parts of the
fruits, cleaning agents, salts and suspended solids.

As the amount and quality of the wastage greatly impacts on the economic viability of a
company, efforts should be made to lessen the use of water and therefore to (World Bank 1996):

 Use dry procedures like as of vibration or air jets for cleaning of the raw fruit
 Separate and re-circulate process wastewaters
 Reduce the use of water for washing purposes
 Eliminate solid wastes without the use of water
 Usage of counter-current systems where washing is compulsory.
Solid wastes typically derived from the pre-treatment;

 washing
 sorting

It contain of injured fruits, stems and stubbles. A most important cause of the solid waste
generation is the pressing process, in which peels, seeds, pulps are detached from the fruit
juice. There is a huge amount of unemployed potential in the juice processing wastes, as they
comprise a large amount of healthy substances, such as flavonoids, colors and pectin.

One more perceived advanced technology development need is called upon for the utilization of
solid wastes from the juice pressing procedure. The residual waste after the berry pressing and
separation process steps, i.e. peels and seeds, do contain valuable compounds such as flavonoids
or aromatic oils. When applying appropriate extraction technique, i.e. super-critical fluid
extraction, these beneficial substances can be recuperated and applied either by the food
industry, or cosmetic or pharmaceutical industries.

5. Application of membrane processes for waste minimization

Technology of membrane is created on the thin physical obstacle through which materials can
either permit (the permeate) or be disallowed and retained (the retentate) due to a driving force
that can be pressure difference, concentration gradient, temperature gradient, and/or electrical
potential difference. Appropriately-used membrane separation can deliver economical savings
and conserve resources. Full benefits are gained when one or both the output streams from the
membrane system are recycled or re-used, thereby reducing process materials requirement and
minimizing waste disposal costs. In comparison with conventional processing, membrane
technology has numerous benefits. By employing membranes, the separated substances are
frequently recoverable in a chemically unchanged form and are consequently simply re-used.
Membrane separation units are compacted and their modular construction means that they can be
scaled up or down easily.

Membrane filtration technique pact new methods of food processing to full fill the consumer
requirement for the fit food rich in valuable constituents and preserved lacking of chemical
additives. Along with the application, the process come to be simpler, shorter and takes place at
lesser temperatures, therefore the valued and heat-sensitive composites are not lost to any
excessive range. State-of-the art membrane mechanism approaches deal with the possibility to
increase the food safety, and reduce the energy depletion and the environmental influence of
food processing.

Membrane separations are applied:

o Concentration (removal of a diluting solvent such as water)

o Purification (separation of contaminants)
o Fractionation (resolution into two or more component substances)

The pressure driven membrane processes are dispersed based on the membrane pore size to:

 micro-filtration (0.1-10 µm)

 ultra-filtration (0.01-0.1 µm)
 nano-filtration (1-10 nm)
 reverse osmosis (0.1-1 nm)

Representative food industrial applications of micro-filtration are:

 Cold sterilization of beverages

 Clarification of fruit juices, beers and wines
 Continuous fermentation
 Separation of oil- water emulsions
 Wastewater treatment

Applications of ultra-filtration are:

 Concentration of milk
 Recovery of the whey proteins
 Recovery of potato starch and proteins
 Concentration of egg
 Clarification of fruit juices and alcoholic beverages.
Central application of nano-filtration:

 Removal of micro-pollutants
 Water softening
 Wastewater treatment

Normally reverse osmosis is used in as:

o Desalination
o Concentration of the food juice and the sugars
o Concentration of the milk.

When a functioning membrane system, optimal circumstances should be found. The

measurement of the process efficiency can be the selectivity and the permeate flux.

Flux is usually stated as the volume or mass per unit membrane area per unit time, for example
liters/m2/hour. Temperature can influence the flux considerably. Operating at high flux levels
means that a smaller amount of the membrane area is required and economies can be made in
terms of capital, operating and membrane replacement costs.

Juice concentration with membranes

Preservation of fruit liquors also contributes to waste minimization by the means of evading the
damage of the product. The old-fashioned preservation procedures are founded on adding the
chemicals or physical methods such as pasteurization, evaporation. Comparing to the
evaporation, which is widely used for fruit juice concentrate production, energy efficiency is of
great importance. The end- product is clean and of good quality, while the by-product of the
final concentration step is a clear water that can be re-used in a process, e.g. for the first rinse of
the berry fruits or for floor washing purposes.

A composite method based on pressure-driven membrane techniques was carried out for grape
juice processing (Pap 2003). A two-stage procedure ensued in a fruit juice concentrate, while the
valuable compounds were reserved in the juice.
 Complex method for fruit juice processing (Pap., 2003)

A first stage, micro-filtration was employed as a pre-treatment for the clarification and
sterilization of the juice samples. Microbiological experimentations and sensory analysis was
conceded out to prove the efficiency of the process step. Based on the microbiological
experiments on YEPD sterile medium that permits the growth of entirely forms of micro-
organisms, a 6 order of magnitude decrease in the total cell number was achieved.

Independent analyzers did the profile analysis of micro-filtered juice samples. They analyzed the
taste and smell of grape juice tasters. The analysis took place in a distinct laboratory, where the
analyzers were placed in distinct cubicles and performed the evaluation aided by a computer
programed.

The subsequent possessions were witnessed on the juice properties after the clarification (Pap
2003):

o Loss of the original smell and taste to a definite extent

o The appearance of the filtered musts was enhanced;
o Due to lower side taste concentration, the taste of the treated samples was
favored.

As the next treating step, reverse osmosis was employed for the concentration, i.e. preservation
of fruit juice. All through the filtration route, water is separated from the juice as the permeate
although the sugar content is upgraded in the retentate, hence preservation happens.
The total solid measurement was done by refractometer was conceded out continuously and
antocyanin examination by spectrophotometer was done. Grounded on these results,
concentration has been accomplished and the anthocyanin were retained in the juice by 99.4 %.

The summary of the work is that application of membrane technologies in fruit juice processing
can help to make the procedure cost effective, and environmentally sound. In the future, the
application of this process will be tested on berry juices. Nevertheless, because of the higher
pectin content and higher acidity of berry juices, the application is challenging. The high pectin
content can cause fouling of the membranes due to their molecular weight, which may mean that
the concentration procedure might fail. Therefore, an enzymatic pectin breakdown will be carried
out before the membrane filtration procedure.

Studies have shown that berry juices have higher organic acid matter and low fermentable sugar
content (Viljakainen 2003). Due to this, the development of berry products is restricted. Berry
wine production is especially challenging, given that fermentation necessitates sugar addition.
However, this results in aroma weakening of the berry wine. To improve the application of berry
juices, malolactic fermentation was tested and found to be a promising way for acidity reduction
without the loss of natural sugar content (Ibid.).

SFE for recovery of valuable compounds from solid waste

Encouraging technology was establish in supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with the natural
CO2 for the rescue of valuable compounds and can be deliberated as an environmentally friendly
solvent free extraction technique that results in insignificant oxidative and thermal stress. With
SFE, high-value oils as well as aromas can be fully recuperated in their natural configuration.
For these high-valued compounds, SFE is not only the most favorable but also the smallest
expensive scheme of production.

After the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the berry processing by-products, research
laboratory tests for the recovery of aroma compounds, flavonoids from peels, as well as seed oil
recovery by SFE technique will be accomplished.
Conclusions:

This study concentrated on waste minimization in the fruit juice processing industry. The joint
efforts of waste minimization during the production procedure, environmentally friendly
preservation of the product, and utilization of side-products would substantially reduce the
amount of waste, as well as boost the environmental profile of fruit juice processing industry.
The significance of the berry juices in a healthy diet is highlighted, and a cost-effective and
environmentally friendly process technology is introduced. Former results showed great
efficiency of the membrane process in grape juice processing, and based on these experiences,
tests will be carried out for berry juices. An unemployed potential exists in berry wastes
concerning about the valued compounds instigating from the pressing process. The peels are
richer in health endorsing flavonoids and aroma combinations, while the seeds comprise oils that
can be recovered.

References:

 Hertog, M. G., Feskens, E. J., Kromhout, D., Hollman, P. C. H., & Katan, M. B. (1993).
Dietary antioxidant flavonoids and risk of coronary heart disease: the Zutphen Elderly
Study. The lancet, 342(8878), 1007-1011.

 Häkkinen, S., Heinonen, M., Kärenlampi, S., Mykkänen, H., Ruuskanen, J., & Törrönen,
R. (1999). Screening of selected flavonoids and phenolic acids in 19 berries. Food
Research International, 32(5), 345-353.

 Keli, S. O., Hertog, M. G., Feskens, E. J., & Kromhout, D. (1996). Dietary flavonoids,
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medicine, 156(6), 637-642.

 Knekt, P., Järvinen, R., Seppänen, R., Heliövaara, M., Teppo, L., Pukkala, E., & Aromaa,
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 Pap, N., Pongrácz, E., Myllykoski, L., & Keiski, R. (2004, June). Waste minimization
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 Pap, N., Pongrácz, E., Myllykoski, L., & Keiski, R. (2004, June). Waste minimization
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