Sustainable use of tropical fruits? Challenges and opportunities of applying the waste-to-value concept to international value chains

Jessica Aschemann-Witzel*, Humberto Ribeiro Bizzo, Ana Carolina S. Doria Chaves, Adelia Ferreira Faria-Machado, Antonio Gomes Soares, Marcos José de Oliveira Fonseca, Ulla Kidmose, Amauri Rosenthal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperReviewResearchpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Agriculture and food science literature on waste-to-value applications that allow upcycling of by-product ingredients is increasing. However, this stream of research rarely takes an international trade and sustainability systems perspective. This focused review defines the term of waste-to-value and the sustainable development goals connected to it, and points to the tensions and questions arising when international trade is involved. Further, it exemplifies the challenges and opportunities of waste-to-value in tropical fruit trade through five cases of tropical fruit from South America: Green coconut, açaí, maracujá, cambuci, and jabuticaba. We present a model of the international supply chain that indicates where the opportunities of waste-to-value applications in international tropical fruit trade are situated, and discuss which future research questions need to be addressed to tackle the challenges of waste-to-value in global tropical fruit chains. Establishing the waste-to-value approach in the export of yet-underused tropical fruits can amongst others improve local employment, preserve natural resources, allow favorable use of side-streams in local energy production, environmentally friendly packaging material for transport, and add health functionalities to the end-consumer products, but challenges have to be solved in order to ensure these environmental and social benefits materialize.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCritical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Volume63
Issue10
Pages (from-to)1339-1351
Number of pages13
ISSN1040-8398
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • international supply chain
  • side-streams valorization
  • Sustainability
  • tropical fruit
  • upcycled food
  • waste-to-value

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