Abstract
Rapid development of food factories in both developed and developing countries, owing to continued growth in the world population, plays a critical role in the food supply chain, including environmental issues such as pollution, emissions, energy and water consumption, and thus food system sustainability. The objective of this study was to briefly review various environmental aspects of food processing operations, including aquatic, atmospheric, and solid waste generation, and also to discuss several strategies that many companies are using to reduce these negative impacts as well as to improve water and energy efficiency. To obtain higher energy efficiencies in food processing factories, two key operations can play critical roles: non-thermal processing (e.g., high pressure processing) and membrane processes. For higher water efficiency, reconditioning treatments resulting in water reuse for other purposes can be conducted through chemical and/or physical treatments. With regards to reducing volumes of processing food waste, two approaches include value-added by-product applications (e.g., animal feed) and/or utilization of food waste for energy production. Finally, we present trends for lowering operational costs in food processing.
Highlights
Ever-increasing population growth has resulted in higher demand for food, which has led to rapid change and expansion in the number of food factories
Key environmental impacts from food include aquatic, atmospheric, and solid waste generation, which are influenced by the quantity of resources utilized, waste generated, and transport used in the food system [2]
Energy efficiency has been proven to be greatly improved by replacing current energy- and water-intensive processes with novel, more efficient techniques, such as non-thermal processing
Summary
Ever-increasing population growth has resulted in higher demand for food, which has led to rapid change and expansion in the number of food factories. In addition to saving energy by applying these technologies, most of these new approaches result in water savings, increased reliability, lower energy required (and lower emissions), and improved product quality [34] Some of these emerging methods include high pressure processing (HPP), ultrasound (US), pulsed electric fields (PEF), and pulsed light treatment (PL) [35]. There are several advantages to using US for food processing instead of conventional processing; these may include more effective bulk mixing and micro-mixing, faster heat transfer, better mass transfer, decreased thermal and concentration gradients, reduced processing temperatures, smaller equipment size, faster start-up, smaller production increments, and reduction in the number of processing steps [7]. Another recent investigation optimized PEF pre-treatment of radish
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