Citrus waste valorization for improved food safety and human health (Citrusafe)

The proposal addresses China’s development priorities to eliminate waste and improve food safety. The project

will exploit complementary Chinese and UK research and industrial expertise to valorise waste from large scale

(>10 million tons of waste) Chinese mandarin canning manufacturing for food safety applications. Efficient

green technologies will be optimised to extract and refine food grade hydrocolloids and citrus bioactives from

both solid and liquid waste streams. The focus will be on improving extraction efficiencies and solubility of the

compounds to ensure compatibility with foods and packaging matrices. The exploitable outputs will be well

defined biomaterials with downstream processing applications in two manufacturing sectors: (1) food additives

and (2) food packaging. Food and packaging prototypes will be developed and selected according to optimal

antimicrobial and antioxidant properties against key spoilage pathogens in high risk foods (e.g. meat and fish

products) and consumer acceptability. This project will utilise China sustainable materials, provide commercial

opportunities to Chinese and UK industries with benefits to the environment and the safety of consumers.