Food By-Products Valorization Technologies: Brewer's Spent Grain

Abstract

Food processing industries generate copious amounts of by-products and wastes, which contribute to various environmental problems. Valorization of these by-products is a potential solution in offsetting current issues and creating a more sustainable food system. This chapter provides a unique perspective on novel processing methods used for the valorization of brewer's spent grain (BSG), the most abundant processing by-product from the brewing industry. The major components of BSG are fiber and proteins, but it also contains lipids, minerals, and phenolic compounds. During the past two decades, tremendous efforts have been made to valorize BSG into different value-added products including food and aquaculture feed ingredients, biogas, biofuels, and functional materials using various processing techniques at lab scales. Nevertheless, challenges associated with the BSG valorization should be taken into consideration in the future including the development of integrated process to fully utilize BSG to produce multiple products, verification of the scalability of the process developed at lab scales, and evaluation of the environmental impact of the processes to valorize BSG.