Abstract
The mounting food waste (FW) being globally generated is a massive concern that needs to be effectively mitigated to safeguard environment. FW treatment is one of the prime focus areas wherein different physical, chemical, or hybrid pretreatment technologies have been adopted to depolymerize the complex waste matrix composed of starch, cellulose, hemicellulose, proteins, and lipids to sustainable chemicals and fuels. However, significant level of undesired products formed during conventional pretreatment has urged for a more benign approach such as enzymatic treatment. Enzymes are substrate specific compared with other nonspecific pretreatment methods and mostly result in the formation of single product for each enzyme type. Industrial hydrolytic enzymes such as amylases, cellulases, xylanases, lipases, and proteases possess myriad commercial applications and occupy major share in the world market for enzymes. The possibility to use these enzymes for FW treatment is being ventured since the recent past with a vision to valorize FW along with waste remediation. Enzymes are being targeted as catalysts for FW treatment due to higher productivity, lower concentration of inhibitory by-products, mild operating conditions, lower water requirement, no major pH neutralization/washing of treated waste, and less toxic outlet streams. With this backdrop the current chapter comprehensively presents FW statistics in global context and reflects the relevance of enzymatic interventions in FW valorization. The factors effecting enzyme-mediated FW treatment along with solid-state and submerged fermentation strategies for FW bioconversion are discussed in details. Therefore this chapter showcases the application of enzymes in FW processing for revenue generation in an ecofriendly manner.
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