Biorefining within food loss and waste frameworks: A review

Biorefining food loss and waste (FLW) to produce bioenergy or bioproducts is an attractive waste management option with potential economic and environmental benefits. This paper aims to identify how biorefining processes have been incorporated into waste management frameworks, and how well their placement or ranking within these frameworks is supported by evidence from the literature. Seven FLW management frameworks (hierarchies) sourced from government and research literature were critically assessed. The ranking of management options within the FLW hierarchy is generally based on environmental outcomes and consequently, it was expected that the FLW hierarchies provide consistent advice. It was found that while biorefining processes were frequently incorporated within the recycling and recovery levels of the FLW hierarchies, their comparative positions were subject to significant variability. A systematic literature review of biorefining processes for FLW management revealed that the environmental impacts of energy-driven processes were frequently assessed and compared. However, comparative environmental assessments of biorefining non-energy products (product-driven biorefining) is underrepresented in this literature. Nevertheless, for horticultural FLW feedstocks, product-driven biorefining potentially offers attractive economic and environmental outcomes. Product-driven biorefining is likely to be particularly relevant for horticultural FLW, due to the abundance of useful and valuable compounds in these materials.