Fermentation of fruit and vegetable wastes for biobased products

Abstract The global production of fruit and vegetables reaches more than 300 million tons per year and it is estimated that half of this production is lost during pre- and postharvesting processes. Actually, disposal methods for fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW) cause environmental concerns such as ground pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore there is an urgent need to valorize these nutrient-rich wastes. Succinic acid (SA) is considered to be one of the top 12 value-added chemicals according to the US Department of Energy. SA has many applications in the chemical, agro-food, and pharmaceutical industries. This chapter draws attention on the challenges associated with FVW and the partial solutions developed for their valorization. More specifically, the utilization of these wastes as nutrient sources for the synthesis of SA by cell factories based on the nonconventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is presented.