Unscientific dumping of shellfishery waste is a major environmental concern worldwide and a serious threat to the coastal area. The shell wastes constitute of many commercially valuable products, such as, chitin, calcium carbonate, proteins, and carotenoids. Processing of shell wastes is a source of wealth. Chitin is one of the constituents of the shell wastes and also the most abundant biopolymer next to the cellulose. Calcium carbonate and proteins are the other valuable constituents of the shell wastes and can serve as a better animal feed supplement. Extraction of chitin and other valuable products from a complex mixture is cumbersome and requires consecutive pretreatment processes. Both chemical and fermentation routes of pretreatment strategies have been adopted to extract the chitin from the shell wastes, which are critically reviewed with their merits and demerits. The application of process intensification techniques, such as ultrasonication and microwave radiation, is also emphasized along with the recent advancement in the field of pretreatment processes. Pleiotropic industrial applications of chitin and its analogues are also discussed. KeywordsChitin • Crustacean shell waste • Chemical and biological pretreatment methods •

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BACKGROUND: The current system in the processing of seafood leads to accumulation of many waste products, such as shells, tails, heads and bones. This seafood waste can be exploited for the extraction of chitin, with numerous applications in different fields. Seafood waste treatment can produce some valuable products. For the valorization of chitin, its degradation is an important step that can be achieved using the chitinase enzyme. Interestingly, chitin can also be used as a significant substrate for chitinase production. In this study, chitinase activity was enhanced by optimizing the fermentation medium, and chitin was used as the substrate. The polynomial model obtained by central composite design was employed in a particle swarm optimization algorithm and artificial neural network to optimize the final optimal concentration factors. The optimization results were compared for the better activity of chitinase. From the authors' best knowledge, the optimization of fermentation medium for chitinase production by particle swarm optimization was performed for the first time.RESULTS: The highest activity optimized by particle swarm optimization and artificial neural network/ Bayesian regularization algorithm) was 115.8 and 124.78 U L -1 , respectively, with the optimized variables.CONCLUSION: This study concluded that particle swarm optimization and artificial neural network are the best optimization methods for medium optimization. Among the multilayer feed-forward algorithms in the artificial neural network, the Bayesian regularization algorithm was useful in optimizing medium components.

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Production of exopolysaccharides (EPSs) has been reported in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Microbial exopolysaccharides have increased interest as another category of microbial products utilized in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and food industries. Investigators are considering replacing synthetic food stabilizers with organic ones by investigating EPS in fermentation-based dairy industries. Particularly for the enhancement of the rheology of fermented food items, EPS is being used. EPSs are considered a natural texturizer and a good alternative for other artificial or new biopolymers utilized in foodstuff as a gelling agent and for suspending and thickening food. These EPS are used abundantly in fermented food and dairy industrials for quality improvement. The main microbial exopolysaccharides viz. dextran, xanthan, pullulan, gellan, curdlan, and scleroglucan have a versatile reputation and various food processing applications in industries. The review discusses the distinctive physical properties of EPSs that mainly determine their application in food industries and the health benefits of EPSs.