Food Waste Upcycling and Functional Foods: Innovations for Health and Sustainability

The increasing global emphasis on health and sustainability has led to significant interest in upcycling food waste into functional foods with nutritional and therapeutic benefits. With the rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, hypertension, and neurodegenerative disorders, there is a growing demand for innovative dietary solutions. The promising area of functional foods, primarily derived from plant-based sources, is an important route to address these health challenges. Food waste from fruits and vegetables, including peels, pulp, shreds, seed coats, and kernels, contains valuable bioactive compounds such as vitamin C, pectin, and phytosterols, known for their antioxidant and health-promoting properties. These foods are often plant-based and utilize food waste by turning parts like peels and seeds into beneficial products. This approach helps reduce waste while promoting better health. This review explores the potential of utilizing these underutilized by-products to develop functional foods, highlighting their nutritional composition, health benefits, and the technological processes involved in their transformation. These by-products are rich in important nutrients and compounds with antioxidant properties, offering ideal opportunities to create healthy, sustainable foods. By upcycling food waste, not only can we mitigate environmental challenges associated with food disposal, but we can also create sustainable and innovative food products that contribute to improved public health. This paper stresses the importance of interdisciplinarity and collaborative efforts in fully capitalizing on food waste to produce functional foods toward global health, sustainability, and resource optimization.