Food loss and waste (FLW) building up as massive volumes of biomass generated from agro-industrial operations and consumption could be upcycled into high-added value products like bioplastics and advanced materials, and move the so-called circular bioeconomy. That is the finding from a study conducted by researchers from Embrapa, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), and institutions from Finland, Austria and Canada. Some of such FLW biomass has been utilized, but generally only in low added-value applications, e.g. as nutrients for livestock. That can be considered underuse, since FLW versatility allows upcycling into advanced materials, with potential to be applied in biomedical devices, sensors, actuators, and energy storage and conversion devices. The study stresses the importance of agri-food waste for the food packaging market, for which it is very promising due to the continuous growth of the sector given the increasing demand for convenience foods and urban population growth. From a linear to circular model According to the study, the bioeconomy is based on the transformation of renewable resources into end-products and materials. Meanwhile, the circular economy proposes the transformation of the current linear supply chain (“take, use, discard”) into a circular model (“take, use, recycle”), focused on optimizing resource efficiency and processes by reusing and recycling products. The researchers believe this would enable a more closed-loop, ideally leading to a waste-free system, and thus counterbalance the socioeconomic and environmental shortcomings that exist under the current linear model. For the materials engineer from Embrapa Instrumentation (São Carlos, SP), Daniel Souza Corrêa, one of the study authors, FLW represent a waste of resources, including water, labor and energy used to produce food. The three components of the water-food-energy nexus require more efficient, equitable, fair and suitable use uso mais in light of the possible depletion of resources in the production ecosystem. Water-energy and food used to be managed independently not long ago, but recent approaches have treated them interconnecteldy. An excess in one of the variables causes loss in one of the others, and subsequently in production chains. “In addition, agri-FLW can contribute to aggravating climate change due to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Methane, for instance, the main contributor to the formation of ozone, is released when organic matter (like food leftovers found in landfills) decomposes”, the researcher observes. Generation of bioplastics The study “The Food–Materials Nexus: Next Generation Bioplastics and Advanced Materials from Agri-Food Residues”, was published in 2021, on issue 43 of Advanced Materials. The journal has one of the highest impacts in the field. In the paper, scientists assessed recent advances in the valorization of FLW. In adddition, they explored sustainability aspects associated with FLW and the prospects to meet fabrication demands toward advanced, functional materials, and devices, as well as challenges and strategies to obtain bioplastics from agri-FLW. One of the applications put forth is the transformation into “green” materials as an emerging option that utilizes residual biomass and streams in the food supply chain. The professor of UFSCar's Department of Materials Engineering, Caio Otoni, first author of the study, explains that he most current bioplastics are first-generation, i.e. produced from carbohydrate-rich plants that, at least in some instances, could instead be used as food or animal feed (e.g., corn, sugarcane, soybean, wheat, and potato), which leads to disagreements around food versus nonfood applications. On the other hand, second-generation bioplastics are derived from feedstocks that are not intended for food use (including wood cellulose and FLW). A third generation of bioplastics, still in development, involves the direct production of plastics (or their building blocks) from living organisms. “Hence FLW utilization to obtain materials is compatible with both the second- and third-generation bioplastics, representing a sustainable alternative to current strategies of massive plastics production, especially single-use ones”, Otoni assesses. According to the Brazilian Association of Public Cleaning and Special Waste Companies, Brazil produces nearly 37 million tons of organic waste annually, only 1% of which is reused. Non-treated organic waste releases methane when it decomposes in landfills. Global challenge Food loss and waste are considered a generalized problem around the globe; a challenge to food security, the economy and environmental sustainability. Reducing global food waste per capita is one of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations (UN). The target is to halve FLW by 2030 (the target was defined in 2015). According to the world study Food Waste Index, published in March last year, the estimate is that 931 million tons of food, or 17% of the food available for consumers in 2019, were discarded by residences, retail establishments, restaurants and other food services. Promising initiatives According to Embrapa's food engineer Henriette M. C. Azeredo, coauthor of the study, in addition to the reuse of sub-products ou waste, there are cases that use the edible parts of foodstuffs to produce materials, which will thus be edible. An example is edible films based on fruits, vegetables and leguminous plants, which have potential to work as primary packaging. The use of food packaging is rather essential to protect foodstuff (from spoiling agents, mechanical damage, dehydration, among others). Hence, the main goal should be to minimize FLW while using long-lasting materials, considering circularity and persistence of the natural resources within the economic cycle. Barriers Nevertheless, the associated economic and environmental costs remain as important barriers for the use of agri-food losses and waste. Azeredo states that even though it is more advantageous from an environmental standpoint, there is a performance gap between bioplastics and conventional plastics. “In addition to posing challenges in processing that require adapted engineering or new methods, such materials generally have inferior mechanical and barrier properties than conventional plastics. These are challenges to be tackled by research, with creativity. On the other hand, materials that are sourced from foods can have functional properties (antimicrobial effects and antioxidants, for instance) that conventional plastics do not offer”, the food engineer states. Azeredo explains that complex and heterogenous chemical make-up of FLW-derived biomass is a challenge but can also offer great opportunities, e.g., if appropriate fractionation tactics are applied. Bruno Dufau Mattos, researcher at the University of Aalto, Finland, and another study coauthor, adds that last-generation strategies usedas to upcycle FLW into advanced, functional materials depend on the deconstruction and reassembly, synthesis and engineering of monomeric, polymeric, and colloidal building blocks from agri-FLW. Azeredo counterposes that bioplastics nevertheless represent only a small fraction (≈1%) of the total plastic production, with packaging being the main application (more than 53%, representing 1.14 million ton in 2019). For the researcher, bioplastics can either replace traditional, non-renewable counterparts or create new solutions to current technological challenges, thus improving the sustainability and circularity aspects of material manufacturing. The study performed by Embrapa, UFSCar and international institutions points that there is a growing need to consider new strategies to prevent and value FLW. Consequently, the precepts of the bioeconomy and circular economy have been introduced as sustainable alternatives to the traditional development model.