Apples are among the most commonly cultivated fruits globally. Approximately 65% of annual apple production is transformed into apple juice concentrate generating a large amount of waste material named apple pomace, which includes seeds, skin, and other components. Disposing of apple by-products directly into the environment constitutes a source of environmental pollution due to its high-water content and easily fermentable nature. Apple pomace is rich in polyphenols that can be utilized as active components in cosmetic, nutraceutical, or pharmaceutical products. The present study aims to describe and compare different physical methods for the extraction of polyphenols from apple pomace. Water was used as the extraction solvent in thermal-stirred extraction (TSE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). The best extraction conditions were identified in terms of solid to solvent ratio, temperature, power, and time through a kinetic study. The best extraction parameters were compared environmentally on a pilot scale through a life cycle assessment (LCA). All the results demonstrated the MAE is the best technique to extract polyphenol from apple pomace in terms yield and environmental impact proving that it is possible to transform waste into a sustainable source of bioactive ingredients.

UNASSIGNED: Meat- and seafood products close to their expiry date (MSPCED) are one of the significant contributors to the growing food waste. Therefore, this study aims to investigate consumers\' attitudes and willingness to buy MSPCED.
UNASSIGNED: An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 400 Danish consumers.
UNASSIGNED: Three consumer segments were identified based on their willingness to buy MSPCED: 39.8% of the participants showed a high willingness to buy MSPCED close to their expiry date (\"All High\"), 34.5% were selective with a high willingness to buy meat close to their expiry date but not seafood (\"High meat, low seafood\"), while 25.7% showed a low willingness to buy MSPCED (\"All Low\"). Consumers\' willingness to buy MSPCED is influenced by the perceived quality of the products, food safety, social acceptability, and price. Consumers were willing to pay a higher price for minced beef close to the expiry date when compared to cod fillets, pork cuts, and chicken breasts. However, consumers were willing to buy cod fillets with the lowest discount percentage when compared to pork cuts, minced beef, and chicken breast. The findings suggest that price reduction and discount percentage can have varying effects in influencing willingness to pay for MSPCED. This study provides valuable insights, for food waste practitioners in the retail sector, to develop effective strategies for reducing food waste by influencing consumer willingness to buy and pay for perishable products like meat and seafood.

To examine a potential correlation between food waste and lunar phases, we have devised a randomized controlled trial. The experiment spanned from 31 March to 10 July 2022, during which we employed the direct weighing method to collect 1903 valid data points on food waste. Utilizing propensity score matching, we meticulously controlled for various factors, including dining dates, the number of diners, dining times, spending levels, and store activities. The study revealed a close relationship between lunar phases and food waste. During the new moon phase, there was an increase in both orders and waste generated by consumers. Specifically, individuals, on average, squandered an additional 6.27% of animal protein (0.79 g), 24.5% of plant protein (1.26 g), 60.95% of starchy foods (3.86 g), and 61.09% of vegetables (5.12 g), resulting in an aggregate food waste of 32.14% (10.79 g). Conversely, during the full moon phase, consumers decreased their orders and subsequently decreased food waste. On average, individuals wasted 44.65% less animal protein (5.76 g), 43.36% less plant protein (2.5 g), 85.39% less seafood (0.73 g), and 8.43% less vegetables (0.93 g), resulting in a 20.52% (7.81 g) reduction in food waste. Furthermore, we validated our conclusions through various validation methods, including model replacement, to ensure robustness and reliability.

The present study developed a novel biochar-augmented enzymatic approach for fast conversion of food waste to solid and liquid biofertilizers. By augmented with 10 % of biochar and mediated with 5 % of food waste-derived hydrolytic enzymes mixture (i.e. fungal mash), 100 kg of food waste could be converted into 22.3 kg of solid biofertilizer with a water content of 30 % and 55.0 kg of liquid biofertilizer, which fulfilled Chinese national standards for solid and liquid organic biofertilizers, respectively. Field plantation results showed that the Pak Choi grown on food waste-derived biofertilizers was comparable with that on commercial ones, in terms of the vegetable productivity and nutrient contents. It was further revealed that the application of food waste-derived biofertilizers did not change soil chemical properties but enriched microbial diversity. This study clearly indicated that the biochar-augmented enzymatic approach for food waste conversion to biofertilizers was technically feasible and economically viable towards circular agriculture economy.

Although anaerobic digestion is the mainstream technology for treating food waste (FW), the high pollutant concentration in the resultant food waste anaerobic digestate (FWAD) often poses challenges for the subsequent biochemical treatment such as activated sludge process. In this study, taking a typical FW treatment plant as an example, we analyzed the reasons behind the difficulties in treating FWAD and tested a novel process called as bio-conditioning dewatering followed by activated sludge process (BDAS) to purify FWAD. Results showed that high concentrations of suspended solids (SS) (16439 ± 475 mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (24642 ± 1301 mg/L), and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) (2641 ± 52 mg/L) were main factors affecting the purification efficiency of FWAD by the conventional activated sludge process. By implementing bio-conditioning dewatering for solid-liquid separation, near 100% of SS and total phosphorus (TP), 90% of COD, 38% of total nitrogen (TN), and 37% of NH4+-N in the digestate could be effectively removed or recovered, consequently generating the transparent filtrate with relatively low pollution load and dry sludge cake (<60% of moisture content). Furthermore, after ammonia stripping and biochemical treatment, the effluent met the relevant discharge standards regulated by China, with the concentrations of COD, TN, NH4+-N, and TP ranging from 151 to 405, 10-56, 0.9-31, and 0.4-0.8 mg/L, respectively. This proposed BDAS approach exhibited stable performance and low operating costs, offering a promising solution to purify FWAD in practical engineering and simultaneously realize resource recovery.

BACKGROUND: The US Environmental Protection Agency Food Recovery Hierarchy suggests methods for diverting food waste from landfill. Knowledge of how hospital foodservices implement food waste management strategies could help modernize food waste practices.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore hospital staff members\' experiences of implementing a food waste management strategy to divert food waste from landfill in their hospital foodservice, including the journey, challenges, and facilitators of this practice change.
METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted in 2022-2023 using semi-structured interviews.
METHODS: Eighteen participants were staff members with knowledge of the food waste management strategy from 14 exemplar hospitals in United States, Spain, Scotland, and Australia using strategies to divert food waste from landfill within the last 10 years.
UNASSIGNED: Mapping and thematic analysis were undertaken to code and identify themes from the interviews that described staff members\' experiences of the journey to implement the strategy.
RESULTS: Six hospitals donated food, 1 transferred food waste for animal feed, 4 used an industrial solution, and 3 sent food waste for composting. A common journey pathway for successful implementation was identified from participants\' experiences. It features the following 6 phases: idea, preparation, roll out, maintenance, established practice, and evolution. Facilitators included legislation, enthusiastic staff members, executive support, and \"luck.\" Challenges were smells, occasions when food waste was not collected, equipment breakage, and funding depletion.
CONCLUSIONS: This study identified a common journey pathway for implementing a food waste management strategy in hospital foodservices that can be used to anticipate and prepare for the steps in the implementation process.

Upcycled foods are created from surplus food, edible food waste and by-products. Food and beverage brands are launching upcycled foods and promoting their product to consumers. Little is known about how consumers respond to upcycled foods, nor how these products can be most effectively promoted. To better understand marketing strategies for upcycled foods, two studies were conducted, one online (n = 300) and one in retail stores (n = 65), in New Zealand to examine differences in consumer sentiment toward upcycled beer. In both studies, environmental benefits were identified as the most important benefits of upcycled foods and information provision on pack and online were important promotional strategies. Consumers reported greater awareness and acceptance of upcycled food in-store, yet raised concerns relating to taste and price. Only 31% of participants surveyed in-store associated \'no negatives\' with upcycled foods compared with 47% of consumers surveyed online. These findings help differentiate a potential promotion strategy for upcycled foods.

In this study, the efficacy of two of the best performing green solvents for the fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass, cholinium arginate (ChArg) as biobased ionic liquid (Bio-IL) and ChCl:lactic acid (ChCl:LA, 1:10) as natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES), was investigated and compared in the pretreatment of an agri-food industry waste, apple fibers (90°C for 1 h). For the sake of comparison, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (BMIM OAc) as one of the best IL able to dissolve cellulose was also used. After the pretreatment, two fractions were obtained in each case. The results gathered through FTIR and TG analyses of the two materials and the subsequent DNS assay performed after enzymatic treatment led to identify ChArg as the best medium to delignify and remove waxes, present on the starting apple fibers, thus producing a material substantially enriched in cellulose (CRM). Conversely, ChCl:LA did not provide satisfactorily results using these mild conditions, while BMIM OAc showed intermediate performance probably on account of the reduced crystallinity of cellulose after the dissolution-regeneration process. To corroborate the obtained data, FTIR and TG analyses were also performed on the residues collected after the enzymatic hydrolysis. At the end of the pretreatment, ChArg was also quantitatively recovered without significant alterations.

Slow pyrolysis, a widely recognized thermochemical technique, is employed to produce biochar usually under inert atmospheres. Recently, there is a growing interest in utilizing CO2 as a carrier gas during pyrolysis as an alternative to inert atmospheres, aiming to modify the resulting pyrolytic products and make them suitable for different applications. This study investigated and compared the impact of CO2 atmosphere with N2 on pyrolysis of food waste, rice husk, and grape tree branches waste via slow pyrolysis at temperatures of 400, 500, and 600 °C at 5 and 15 °C/min for 1 h, to evaluate biochar production and its properties. The results demonstrate that CO2 atmosphere increased the biochar yield for all feedstocks and significantly influenced the physicochemical properties of biochar. Compared to N2, CO2-derived biochar exhibited less volatile matter, higher carbon content, lower O/H and O/C molar ratios and enhanced textural properties. This study highlighted the potential of utilizing CO2 for biochar production and tailoring biochar properties for specific applications and the findings contribute to the establishment of sustainable and efficient waste management systems and the production of value-added biochar products.

School is an important setting for creating healthy and sustainable food environments. Using participatory methods, this pilot study examined food and packaging waste and nutrition quality within the school food system.
One secondary school in Ireland participated in a waste audit. Eleven male students (15-17 years) participated as citizen scientists. Students collected waste over 1 day and documented data on waste categories. Nutrition labels were photographed for analysis. Students created a video and participated in a focus group. Quantitative data were summarised using descriptive frequencies. A Nutrient Profile Model was applied to summarise nutrition quality. The focus group discussion was analysed using content analysis.
Highest weights of waste were organic waste (14.2 kg), paper and cardboard (5.0 kg), and hard plastics (4.1 kg). Materials banned by the European Union Single Use Plastics Directive were found. Recycling bins were contaminated with food waste. Nutrition labels from 132 food packages were analysed, of which 115 items (87%) were low-nutrient, energy dense foods. Confectionary, energy bars and desserts and savoury snacks were the most common packaged food groups. Students were not surprised by the unhealthy food choices; however, they were shocked and saddened at the waste practices. Their proposed solutions mapped across individual, community and organisational levels.
The methodologies allowed successful engagement with students on this topic. The use of unnecessary plastics to serve food, poor waste separation practices, and the production of avoidable waste from low-nutrient, energy-dense products were key issues identified. Students proposed solutions that are achievable in the short-term.