South Australian Waite campus looks to turn food waste into multi-million high-value products industry
Food waste has components that can become high-value products such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
A plan launched at University of Adelaide’s Waite campus in 2019 aimed to increase the value of agricultural waste by creating industries worth over $100 million a year to South Australia. Researchers and industry would turn waste from Australian agriculture into high-value products such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
The $11 million research consortium program to develop agricultural products would be hosted at the Waite campus. It brings together 18 partners, including nine South Australian agriculture and food companies and nine national and international academic institutions and industry partners.
Research consortium lead investigator Professor Vincent Bulone said up to 40% of South Australia’s primary production harvest could end up as waste, left to rot in the field or turned into low value products such as compost or animal feed. Yet all this wasted food had compounds with potential high value as prebiotics or anti-oxidants; also anti-inflammatory or anti-microbial properties; others, in particular carbohydrates, provide mechanical strength and texture to food, lubricants, cosmetics and structural materials.
Projects already started by the program include:
• isolating and identifying anthocyanins from apples and berries for use in skincare and other health- products;
• testing cellulose molecules from waste Brussels sprout stalks and other biomass to replace glass fibres in filtration systems and plastic materials, and;
• extracting vitamin D, beta-glucans and chitosan from mushroom waste for use in nutraceuticals and sunscreens.
Research partners in the project include the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, CSIRO and Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology where Professor Bulone is a former director of the KTH Advanced Carbohydrate Materials Consortium.
The consortium received a $4 million South Australian government grant through the Research Consortia Program.
Other consortium partners are: Filsell’s Orchards, Raw Nation Wholefoods, AE Cranwell & Sons, Ashton Valley Fresh, JVJ, Vanquish Technologies, SA Mushrooms, Coopers Brewery, Potatoes South Australia, CarbOzide, Agilent Technologies Australia, Plant & Food Research, Ingredion (USA) and Carlsberg Group (Denmark).
