Researchers from King’s College London have found that converting agricultural food waste could serve as a solution for the global food crisis.
They found that the conversion could provide three times the amount of protein the average person needs to feed every person in the world, every day.
Their research paper, published in the journal Green Chemistry, shows reviews of sustainable technologies that convert organic waste – including food waste from agriculture, kitchens and restaurants, and the wider food industry – into protein.
The aim of the discovery, the authors said, was to use the technologies to solve malnutrition, reduce the pressure on agriculture and food supply chains caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and fight climate change.
One of the authors of the research, Ellen Piercy, said reducing waste by creating an “economy powered by nature” is crucial in the fight against climate change.
“We currently throw away billions of tonnes of perfectly usable organic waste every year but by using sustainable bio-converters we can transform this food waste into a valuable protein resource,” she said.
Corresponding author, Dr. Miao Guo, said organic waste derived from the food industry or agricultural sectors is a valuable resource.
“Waste to protein technologies could offer promising protein alternatives to help alleviate the global hunger crisis.
“Our research suggests that beyond any individual technology, it is very important to synergistically integrate technologies and optimise the protein recovery from diverse waste streams.
“This paper represents a cross-disciplinary challenge which can only be tackled by joint efforts from scientists, engineers, working together with industry and governments,” she said.
Food supply chain
Researchers said that recent disruption to global food supply chains has significantly increased the projected number of people suffering from malnutrition from 841 million to 909 million by 2030.
1.3 billion tonnes of wasted food and 11.1 billion tonnes of crop residues such as wheat straw are being produced annually, which could help solve the global food crisis they said.
In the UK alone, researchers said, 1.5 million tonnes of organic waste are created from the production of food, such as meat, dairy, fruit and brewing products.
Fermentation
Fermentation is one technology which could make a difference, they said. With arable farming producing eight billion tonnes of carbohydrate waste every year, if it was fermented to make mycoprotein, it would produce the same amount of protein that could be had from five billion cows – three times more cows than there are on the planet right now.
By applying mycoprotein technologies to agricultural crop residues alone, 562 mega tonnes of protein could be produced annually and this represents potential waste-to-protein amounting to 197g/person/day, which would help meet the recommended average protein intake of 50g per 70kg adult per day, researchers said.
Chief scientific advisor of Quorn Foods, Tim Finnigan, said the protein-to-waste idea is a big one that has the potential to “revolutionise our food system” if it has “the right level of focus investment”.
Quorn Foods, the company behind Quorn, the well-known fake-meat products, uses mycroprotein as a protein ingredient in all its products. It makes this primarily via fungi in air-lift fermenters, where it grows on high-grade carbohydrates derived from maize and wheat.
“Exciting collaborative research is in place between Quorn and King’s College London on developing future mycoprotein to convert the carbohydrates found in arable waste (called lignocellulose) to protein,” Finnigan added.
“With the right focus, collaboration and investment a five-year horizon seems realistic.”