Adding value to food and agricultural waste : Immediate and longer-term applications

Many applications in our daily life are based on concepts that are derived from biological systems. Biomimetics investigates biological structures and processes for their use as models for the development of artificial systems. Carbohydrates from extracellular matrices and energy storage granules from a whole range of organisms have considerable potential for the development of new high-performance materials with low environmental impact as well as functional food products. Such applications can be derived from agricultural waste or downgraded biomass, which are typically rich in structural carbohydrate polymers and bioactive compounds. In this webinar, I will present some of our recent research where different bioactives and structural materials based on polysaccharides have been designed for a number of potential applications. The approaches used to develop these materials are at the interface between biochemistry, biotechnology, analytical chemistry, chemistry and material sciences.