According to the statistics of ¡§Annual Report of Environment Protection in Taiwan, the Republic of China¡¨ published by the Executive Yuan, the percentage of food waste and organic garbage amount to about 20-30% of ordinary family garbage, where the food waste is about 10-15% of ordinary family garbage.To recycle the wastes, an effective method of collecting and processing food waste in order to achieve the goal of garbage reduction depends on the cooperation of civilians. The food waste collected will be processed through composting, hog-feeding, or anaerobic decomposition. The composting treatment can be divided into anaerobic and aerobic methods. Aerobic composting process is to make use of turning, forced blowing or suction of air in order to supply oxygen. Major process is based on aerobic decomposition to cause the stabilization of organic material. As the reaction speed is fast, the processing time can be drastically reduced and is thus called ¡§high-speed composting process¡¨. Presently there are already many researches in the method of processing food waste that could complete composting products within the shortest time. The result of this study shows if the collection, transportation, treatment, and recycling processes can be properly planned and promoted, the civilians tend to cooperate and the amount of waste recycling can be significantly increased. In addition, by controlling living condition of fungi including moisture content, temperature, PH value, and volatile solid through evaluating primers of superior fungi, the investigation of the food waste processing efficiency and its influence shows there is a trend of significant reduction in the amount of volatile solid material with time.This indicates the phenomena of food waste being decomposed by fungi. The estimation of decomposing speed for food waste is in the range of 2.08¡Ñ10-4 ~ 1.00¡Ñ10-2 kg/hr and the average speed is 2.87¡Ñ10-3 kg of food waste per hr-kg of fungi. The efficiency of treatment is about 50% of the result of original Japanese plants.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-109).

Finding an alternative to fishmeal and fish oil in animal feeds has been a topic of increasing interest due to the pressures being put on the ocean’s fisheries and the increasing world demand for animal protein. An often-overlooked source of nutrients is in the form of food waste. One third of all food produced globally ends up in landfills, wasting a huge amount of nutrients and embodied energy that could otherwise be redirected towards productive use. This study investigated the feasibility of feeding Hermetia illucens, the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), grown on urban food waste, and Lemna minor, a species of duckweed, to tilapia in a recirculating aquaponic system as a compound feed. The study compared the growth of two groups of 58 tilapia over 44 days; one group was fed commercial pellets and the other a compound feed composed of BSFL and duckweed. The group fed the commercial pellets achieved heavier weight gain than the group fed the experimental feed but both groups resulted in steady weight gain and had similar mortality rates. Feeding the experimental feed composed of BSFL and duckweed to tilapia in an aquaponics system is an effective method of diverting food waste from the landfill and further research should be done to optimize this process.

This thesis reports on the research undertaken to increase the sustainability of the management of industrial food waste. The main objective of this research is to develop a systematic framework that can be used by food manufacturers to identify and implement sustainable solutions for food waste management. The research reported in this thesis is divided into four main parts. The first part reviews the literature on ramifications and issues associated with the generation and management of food waste, available options to tackle issues related to food waste, categorisations of food waste and existing methodologies to support food waste management modelling and decision-making with regard to the management of food waste. The second part introduces a framework to identify types of food waste and link them to their most sustainable food waste management solution. The third part presents a food waste management modelling procedure and identifies attributes needed to model food waste management. The fourth part analyses relationships between attributes and provides information flowcharts and a methodology to support the modelling of food waste management systems. The applicability and usefulness of the research have been demonstrated through case studies with two UK food manufacturers: a brewery and a meat-alternative manufacturer. Although the framework presented in this thesis aims at improving food manufacturers waste management, it could be easily adapted to be used in other stages of the food supply chain. In summary, the research reported in this thesis has concluded that food manufacturers generate large amounts of food waste that are managed in a wide range of ways. A systematic framework to analyse types of food being wasted, waste management processes, food manufacturers, waste management processors and sustainability implications of food waste management provides a sound methodology to identify opportunities to improve the management of industrial food waste.

Food has a substantial impact on climate change and the environment, to reduce the impact, the Europe Union has decided that all countries should start collecting food waste from the 1stof January 2024. In Sweden there are 30 out of 290 municipalities that doesn’t collect any food waste generated by households. This paper is set to examine what obstacles these municipalities are facing and what methods they should be using while implementing their food waste collection system. The method for determining what obstacles the municipality face was through a survey sent out to the 30 municipalities who hasn’t yet implemented the system inquiring what obstacles they were facing. To identify which methods should be used while implementing their system, five municipalities who already are collecting food waste was interviewed about which methods was effective for them and what wasn’t. The study showed that economical and logistical problems in different varieties was the most frequent issue, the source of the issues was most commonly the low-density population and large area within the municipality. The issues rendered the purpose of collecting the food waste unnecessary as well as putting substantial financial strain on the municipality. The most effective methods to manage these issues were: cooperation between municipalities, tailored collection systems with special vehicles and food waste containers along with a satisfactory communication to the households. Most municipalities predict a higher fee for the households, furthermore they find that the changing directive from the government makes it hard to plan.

No description available.

No description available.

The objectives of this 8-week study were to assess the amount (weight) of pre-consumer (production) food waste at a large university, serving 18,000 meal plan holders, and identify major contributors of food waste (i.e. food categories, types of waste). Dining facility managers and waste coordinators (WCs) were voluntarily recruited from three dining facilities to oversee all food waste data collection and entry by dining staff, and attend weekly meetings with the research team. Food waste was weighed by staff at the designated facilities using institutional food scales. Information about the food waste was then written on tracking sheets and entered into an online database. The tracking sheet and database contained information on: product description (i.e. food type), reason for waste, weight of food (lbs), disposal method (compost/food scraps, diverted, or trash), and any related comments. Waste analysis included aggregating weekly data by total waste (lbs), facility, food type, food groups of MyPlate, and reason for food waste. Quantitative results from this study reveal that thousands of pounds of food waste are disposed of each week, especially for proteins and grains. Results derived from qualitative interviews and focus groups indicated that waste tracking is beneficial for staff buy-in, creating waste standards to improve efficiency, and adjusting food production schedules. Implications from these results indicate ability to help guide policy and practice, and provide insight into major contributors of institutional food waste. / Master of Science

The U.S. Greek yogurt market has experienced significant growth, rising from 1-2% in 2004 to 40% in 2015, resulting in a large amount of lactose-rich acid whey as a byproduct. Using lactase to transform this waste into valuable products has emerged as a promising solution. Covalent immobilization allows enzymes to be reused and prevents contamination of the product. While immobilizing lactases has been found to enhance their pH and temperature stability, undesired enzyme-substrate interactions can still lead to reduced enzyme activity. This study investigates novel approaches for enhancing the performance of immobilized lactase enzyme through controlled orientation and microenvironment modification. We utilized initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to fabricate tailored polymeric thin films as enzyme immobilization supports. A site-specific spycatcher/spytag system was employed for direct immobilization of lactase, while polycationic polymers were incorporated to modify the local chemical environment. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the retention of key functional groups in the polymeric supports. The epoxide-amine ring-opening reaction between the support and enzyme was verified, indicating covalent immobilization. Directed immobilization resulted in significantly improved enzyme activity compared to random immobilization, particularly at pH 7 and 8. Incorporation of hydrophobic crosslinkers further enhanced the activity of directedly immobilized Lactase, even exceeding that of the free LacZ-ST by 155% at pH 7, while no effect was observed for randomly immobilized LacZ. The inclusion of pH-responsive polycationic moieties in the support enabled LacZ to catalyze at pH 4, where the free enzyme is typically inactive. This study demonstrates the potential of combining controlled enzyme orientation with tailored microenvironments to optimize the performance of immobilized biocatalysts across a broader pH range. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / With the booming Greek yogurt industry generating substantial amounts of lactose-rich acid whey as a byproduct, there is a pressing need for effective waste management to avoid negative environmental impact. However, the abundance of this acidic byproduct also presents a unique opportunity for product valorization. Lactose, the primary component of acid whey, can be transformed into valuable prebiotics and sweeteners through biotransformation via lactase, an enzyme commonly used for producing lactose-free milk. Nonetheless, the acidic nature of acid whey (~pH 4) inhibits lactase activity, which typically thrives at neutral pH levels (~pH 7). To tackle this challenge, we explored enzyme immobilization that is, fixing the enzymes on a solid support to improve the stability and reusability of lactase under non-ideal pH environment. Our approach involved using initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to create specialized polymeric supports for enzyme immobilization via covalent bonds. We employed a site-specific immobilization strategy using the spycatcher/spytag system to ensure optimal enzyme orientation, which we hypothesized to be critical for enhancing activity. Additionally, we modified the chemical environment around the immobilized lactase by incorporating a positively charged polymer to allow the local pH to be more neutral than the bulk pH, thus improving the activity of the immobilized lactases. The results showed that our directed immobilization method significantly improved lactase activity, especially at neutral pH levels, compared to immobilized enzymes with random orientation. Furthermore, by adding positively charged components to the immobilization support, we enabled the immobilized lactase to function even at pH 4, where free lactase is completely inactive. This shows promise for using immobilized lactase to process acid whey without pH adjustment. This research highlights the potential for transforming dairy waste into useful products while addressing the limitations of current enzymatic processes, paving the way for more sustainable practices in food production and biomanufacturing.

The main goal of this study is to investigate stimulus that can be used to increase consumers purchase intentions toward suboptimal food products. Consumers seem to have low preferences to buy fruits and vegetables with unusual appearance, products with damaged package and close to the expiration date, usually called suboptimal food products. However, rejection of suboptimal food is an important contributor to food waste levels. Interventions aimed at encouraging the purchase of suboptimal food are scarce, however needed. This study used the theory of normative influence to test the effect of both descriptive and injunctive norms on a product with an unusual appearance, a product with a reduced expiration date and a product with a damaged package. The first study tested different messages appeals to create a realistic norm in study 2. From this study, it was selected the social message appeal and the frequencies of purchase toward each product, using them in the messages as the prevalent norm The second study analysed the effect of injunctive and descriptive norms of purchase intentions toward suboptimal food and also tested the effect of environmental concern and food waste problem awareness. Results show that both environmental concern and food waste problem awareness impact purchase intentions toward suboptimal food. Additionally, appeals employing social norms proved to affect purchases intentions toward these products. However, this effect only occurred for the vegetable with an unusual appearance and the product with a package damaged. For the product with a reduced expiration date the norms had no effect. Moreover, for the product with an unusual appearance, food waste problem awareness mediated the effect of injunctive norm on purchase intentions. Based on the results, this study contributes to the theory of normative influences by showing that, in a general way, this theory is applied to food waste reduction issues, more specifically, with suboptimal food consumption. However, it is necessary to consider the type of sub-optimally and the context where the influence is applied. Additionally, was discussed how social norms can be used to tackle food waste and the implications for marketing and policy actions.