Greener technologies in agri-food wastes valorization for plant pigments: Step towards circular economy

Abstract

The need for food has drastically increased with the world population's unprecedented growth, which consequently raised agricultural production. The increased agricultural and food production as a whole has resulted in the generation of enormous amounts of food waste, which is now posing a threat to both the environment and humanity. To address these issues, it is now crucial to persuade people to use promising green technologies to manage and valorize agri-food waste into valuable food additives. The recovery of value-added pigments from agri-food waste as natural food colorants is one of the new business prospects being created by approaches influenced by the circular economy model that have been continuously growing globally. These natural pigments are expected to substantially impact the development of functional foods and offer a wealth of bio-therapeutic potential. The production of naturally safe food pigments from the agri-food waste offers a greener approach within circular economy concept while avoiding the use of synthetic-petro-based colourants from the food chain. This also promotes the incorporation of natural food pigments obtained through sustainable resources. This state-of-the-art graphical review focused on the recent advances in green valorization technologies of agri-food waste to exploit natural plant pigments and their relation to sustainable food production and green circular economy.

Keywords

• Agri-food waste
• Green valorization strategies
• Plant pigments
• Sustainable food production
• Green circular economy