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Food industry waste biorefineries: future energy, valuable recovery, and waste treatment 393

food in the market also leads to the loss of food that is, food stuffs, such as meat
and bread, are not properly packed along with imperfect way of disposal by the res-
taurants. Freshly utilized dairy products and other items which are liable to spoil
are the major food losses in the retail market. Nearly, one-third of total fruits and
vegetables is lost even before reaching to the consumers at the global level. Nearly
11.3 million tons of food waste is only produced by United Kingdom from the
households and food supply chain. Along with that, 2.2 million tons of the by-
products generated from the manufacturing stage are utilized as animal feed. Retail
and distribution sector significantly leads to the production of large amount of food
waste, but the food and drinks sectors have the management system for the reuse of
generated food waste.
Comparatively, a high amount of carbon is present in food waste as that of other
wastes which could be considered as the fastest growing household stream in
upcoming future. In present situation, 61% of the food waste is undesirable, but the
development of new management strategies may prove beneficial for the proper uti-
lization of food waste. Normally, the population does not consider food waste as an
environmental issue, emphasizing personal behavior in management of food waste.
Instead of that, there is no ethical or social burden on the world population to think
about the management of the food waste (Lin et al., 2013).

17.4 Framework for food-waste management

The waste framework directive (WFD) considers food waste as main environmental
issue and designed some work plan to properly utilize and manage the food waste,
such as biowaste collection separately from other wastes, and the utilization of bio-
waste as compost or digestate, along with the introduction of novel approaches for
the production of valuable and ecological material from the food waste. The frame-
work directive demands the volunteer states for the appliances of waste prevention
programs at nation level. Analyses of these programs are performed after every
6 years and simultaneously the programs should be upgraded. These programs can
be operated independently or incorporation with other plans or programs for waste
management. Before merging with other programs, one should clearly analyze and
understood the waste-prevention parameters of that program. Article 29(3) of WFD
instructs the representative states to define some qualitative as well as quantitative
standards for easy and proper monitoring of different waste-management programs.
Article 29(5) helps the commission for designing the guidelines for member states
on the basis of the best standards utilized for waste prevention (Directive 2009/28/
EC). The utilization of food waste as compost and for anaerobic digestion is consid-
ered as the best approach in the roadmap of biowaste management. An anaerobic
digester may lead to the production of biofertilizer along with power and heat from
the food as well as agricultural waste. A report conducted in United Kingdom
defines the potential of 106 anaerobic digesters to process 5.1 million tons of food
waste (Green Investment Bank, 2013). The European Parliament and Council