Prior to the turn of the 20^th century, the disposal of food waste ranked relatively low on the international agenda and in global discussions on agricultural systems. Instead, policy makers focused on increasing food production with very little concern given to improving the efficiency of food systems. However, in recent years, as the calls for sustainable food production become louder, so has the focus on integrating issues such as food safety and quality, energy sustainability, economic efficiency and food loss and waste.

Today, food waste produces valuable compounds; these compounds originate from food-related materials (food "loss" "waste", "by-product", "co-product") generated worldwide. Largescale compound extractions have been made possible by the rapid development of technologies that support the recovery of valuable ingredients for human consumption.

The prospect of recovering valuable compounds for human consumption is a story that started decades ago. Citrus peels were one of the first to be utilized for the recovery of essential oils and flavonoids, and were re-utilized as additives and flavourings in food and fruit juices. Even earlier, solvent extraction had been applied to recover oil from olive kernels, which are one of the by-products derived from olive oil production. Nowadays, olive kernels are considered an established commodity similarly to olive fruit, and researchers focus on the recovery of polyphenols from olive mill wastewater. In the field of animal-derived side streams, cheese whey constitutes the most intensely investigated food by-product and represents a successful reference of resource valorisation. Protein concentrates are among the compounds derived from this source.

About the Book. Food Waste Recovery: Processing Technologies and Industrial Techniques acts as a guide to recover valuable safe and nutritious components from food-related materials with a view to their reintroduction in the food supply chain. The book investigates all the relevant recovery issues and compares different techniques to help advance research and develop new applications. Coverage of the different technologies is included, while keeping a balance between the characteristics of current conventional and emerging technologies. Key features of the book include:

• Presents a holistic methodology (the so-called "5-Stages Universal Recovery Process") and a general approach (the so-called "Universal Recovery Strategy") to ensure optimized management of the available technologies and recapture of different high added-value compounds from any waste source
• Includes characteristics, safety and cost issues of conventional and emerging technologies, the benefits of their application in industry, and commercialized applications of real market products
• Demonstrates all aspects of the safe and nutritious components from food-related materials recovery process such as preservation of the substrate, yield optimization, preservation of functionality of the target compounds during processing

More details at the Editor's (Charis M. Galanakis) blog: http://scitechconnect.elsevier.com/food-waste-recovery-industrial-implementation/