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Food processing waste consists of starch (more than 60%), gluten, additives, flavours, yeast and essences. The starch can be extracted easily from the food processing waste by simple agitation and heating and then converted to value added chemical compounds to generate revenue streams. For example, glucose, the most common polyhydroxy compound made from starch, is obtained in 90-95% yields by acid or enzymatic depolymerization of starch, and because a molecule of water is added, the mass yield of glucose is slightly more than 100%. Glucose can be converted to a variety of cyclic and acyclic polyols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, and ethers, some of which are now used industrially and others which could increase in importance if the price for petroleum and petroleum products continues to rise.

Further, with concerns over build-up in the environment of discarded plastic goods due to their resistance to microorganisms, the plastics industry is giving considerable attention to this area. If plastics can be made readily biodegradable, new markets for such materials would materialize, and the growth for plastics would likely exceed even the most liberal estimates. Starch was evaluated as an inert filler in poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastics, as a reactive filler in rigid urethane foams, and as a component in poly (vinyl alcohol) and ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer films.

TO 

STARCH

CHEMICALS

TO 

FOOD PROCESSING WASTE

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