Exploitation of Brewing Industry Wastes to Produce Functional Ingredients

Abstract

Nowadays, the consumers' global demand for healthier diets is steadily increasing, and the development of novel functional ingredients has become a focus of the food industry. On the other hand, the accumulation of huge amounts of food wastes every year has led to environmental degradation and especially to significant loss of valuable material that could otherwise be exploited as new health-promoting ingredients, fuels and a great variety of additives. In this respect, the biggest challenge of the current scientific world is to convert the underutilised by-products generated by the food and beverage industries into more profitable and marketable added value products which would also contribute significantly to meet the nowadays society needs. This chapter gives an overview regarding the possibility of exploiting the brewing industry wastes as sources of bioactive compounds in order to produce functional ingredients and products with added value.

Technological Properties and Consumer Acceptability of Bakery Products Enriched with Brewers’ Spent Grains

“…Contrariwise, they can be a low-cost source of valuable and innovative products (bioenergy, food ingredients and feed, soil improver and fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc. ), and their reuse can contribute to the EU Zero Waste Policy [ 1 ]. The recovery and reuse of the brewing industry by-products with the aim to extract functional compounds and to develop innovative products can represent a good approach of circularity in this industrial sector from the perspective also of the food-health relationship, thanks to their considerable amount of valuable compounds (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, polyphenols, and minerals) [ 2 , 3 ].…”

“…In particular, brewers’ spent grain (BSG) resulting after the mashing and filtration stage represents 85% of total by-products [ 4 ]. BSG mainly contains the barley grain husk, minor fractions of pericarp and fragments of endosperm, and other residual compounds not converted into fermentable sugars by the mashing process [ 1 ]. In recent years, BSG has increasingly gained attention among various stakeholders, especially food industries, due to its chemical and nutritional composition.…”

Valuable Food Molecules with Potential Benefits for Human Health

“…The modifications occurred during globalization and the fast development of food production had led to new expectations from consumers regarding food and healthy diets [1]. Nowadays, as life expectancy has substantially extended, there is an acute demand for special foods that fulfill all the nutritional needs and help us maintain a balanced diet-a key role in sustaining human health [2].…”

Transforming okara into a microalgae culture medium

“…Also, BSG were found to be abundant in proteins, essential amino acids, fiber, and phenolic compounds (Mussatto, 2014). Nutrients such as lipids, fatty acids, and polyphenols were also found to be present in BSG (Fărcaş, Socaci, Dulf, Tofană, Mudura, & Diaconeasa, 2015). The predominant lipids identified were triglyceride and the fatty acids were linoleic, palmitic, oleic, α-linoleic, and stearic acids.…”

“…The predominant lipids identified were triglyceride and the fatty acids were linoleic, palmitic, oleic, α-linoleic, and stearic acids. Other fatty acids, including myristic and vaccenic acids, were present in lower amounts (Fărcaş, Socaci, Dulf, Tofană, Mudura, & Diaconeasa, 2015). One of the main challenges in the utilization and extraction of useful components in BSG is that the proteins and nutrients are bound to the cellulose and hemicellulose.…”