Microbial Enzymes and Organic Acids Production from Vegetable and Fruit Wastes and Their Applications

Abstract

Food and vegetable waste management has become a major economic and environmental challenge. The fruit and vegetable wastes contain a variety of bioactive substances such as dietary fibers, phenolic compounds, enzymes, flavors, and organic acids. The significantly large amount of fruit and vegetable waste contains various by-products which are very beneficial for various industries. A vast range of industrial enzymes can be produced from various food and vegetable wastes. Extracted enzymes and organic acid can be used in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and chemical industries and food research. This chapter focuses mainly on the characterization of different types of fruit and vegetable wastes and optimization of fermentation parameters to produce various industrially important enzymes such as amylase, cellulase, pectinase, protease, and phytase and organic acids such as acetic acid, lactic acid, etc., using a wide range of microorganisms isolated from different food wastes. In addition, the advances in genetic engineering to improve microbial strain to enhance the enzymes and organic acids have been discussed.