Grape pomace (GP) is a low-value by-product that contains a significant amount of high value-added products. The huge amount of non-edible residues of GP wastes (seeds, skins, leaves and, stems) produced by wine industries causes’ environmental pollution, management issues as well as economic loss. Studies over the past 15–20 years revealed that GP could serve as a potential source for valuable bioactive compounds like antioxidants, bioactive, nutraceuticals, single-cell protein, and volatile organic compounds with an increasing scientific interest in their beneficial effects on human and animal health. However, the selection of appropriate techniques for the extraction of these compounds without compromising the stability of the extracted products is still a challenging task for the researcher. Based on the current scenario, the review mainly summarizes the novel applications of winery wastes in many sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, livestock fields, and also the bio-energy recovery system. We also summarize the existing information/knowledge on several green technologies for the recovery of value-added by-products. For the promotion of many emerging technologies, the entrepreneur should be aware of the opportunities/techniques for the development of high-quality value-added products. Thus, this review presents systematic information on value-added by-products that are used for societal benefits concerning the potential for human health and a sustainable environment.

Composting is a solid waste management alternative that avoids the emission of methane associated with its disposal in landfill and reduces or eliminates the need for chemical fertilisers if compost is applied. The main objective of this study was to analyse the environmental burdens of composting as a way to achieve a more circular valorisation of wine waste. To do so, with the purpose of identifying optimal operational conditions and determining the “hotspots” of the process, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used. The consumption of diesel fuel in machinery was determined to be the main critical point in the environmental effects of the system, followed by the transport and distribution of the compost. After the application of compost instead of mineral fertilisers, corn, tomato and strawberry crops would have a better environmental performance in most impact categories. In this sense, a maximum improvement of 65% in terrestrial ecotoxicity is achieved in strawberry cultivation. In light of the results obtained, it is demonstrated that composting is a suitable way of organic waste valorisation according to Circular Economy principles.

There is growing evidence that the very presence of human beings in an enclosed environment can impact air quality by affecting the concentrations of certain airborne volatile organic compounds (VOC). This influence increases considerably when humans perform different activities, such as using toiletries, or simply eating and drinking. To understand the influence of these parameters on the concentrations of selected airborne constituents, a study was performed under simulated residential conditions in an environmentally-controlled exposure room. The human subjects either simply remained for a certain time in the exposure room, or performed pre-defined activities in the room (drinking wine, doing sport, using toiletries, and preparation of a meal containing melted cheese). The impact of each activity was assessed separately using our analytical platform and exposure room under controlled environmental conditions. The results showed that prolonged human presence leads to increased levels of isoprene, TVOCs, formaldehyde and, to a lesser extent, acetaldehyde. These outcomes were further supported by results of meta-analyses of data acquired during several internal studies performed over two years. Furthermore, it was seen that the indoor concentrations of several of the selected constituents rose when the recreational and daily living activities were performed. Indeed, an increase in acetaldehyde was observed for all tested conditions, and these higher indoor levels were especially notable during wine-drinking as well as cheese meal preparation. Formaldehyde increased during the sessions involving sport, using toiletries, and cheese meal preparation. Like acetaldehyde, acrolein, crotonaldehyde and particulate matter levels rose significantly during the cheese meal preparation session. In conclusion, prolonged human residence indoors and some recreational and daily living activities caused substantial emissions of several airborne pollutants under ventilation typical for residential environments.

From 1861 to the 1940s, gold was produced from 64 mining districts in Nova Scotia, where mercury amalgamation was the dominant method for the extraction of gold from ore until the 1880s. As a result, wastes (tailings) from the milling process were contaminated by mercury and were high in naturally occurring arsenic. In 2004 and 2005, sediments, water and mollusc tissues were collected from 29 sampling stations at nine former gold mining areas along the Atlantic coastline and were analysed for arsenic and mercury. The resulting data were compared with environmental quality guidelines. Samples indicated high potential risk of adverse effects in the intertidal environments of Seal Harbour, Wine Harbour and Harrigan Cove. Arsenic in Seal Harbour was bioavailable, resulting in high concentrations of arsenic in soft-shell clam tissues. Mercury concentrations in tissues were below guidelines. This paper presents results of the sampling programs and implications of these findings.

This paper for the first time synthesizes novel biodiesel experimentally using low-cost feedstocks of coconut oil, caustic soda, and fermented palm wine contaminated by microorganisms. The alkaline catalyzed transesterification method was used for biodiesel production with minimal glycerol. The produced biodiesel was biodegradable and effective in cleaning a shoreline oil spill experiment verified by our developed oil spill radial numerical simulator. For the first time, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was hybridized with invasive weed optimization (IWO), imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), and shuffled complex evolution (SCE-UA) to predict biodiesel yield (BY) using obtained Monte Carlo simulation datasets from the biodiesel experimental seed data. The test results indicated ANFIS-IWO (MSE = 0.0628) as the best model and also when compared to the benchmarked ANFIS genetic algorithm (MSE = 0.0639). Additionally, ANFIS-IWO (RMSE = 0.54705) was tested on another coconut biodiesel data in the literature and it outperformed both response surface methodology (RMSE = 0.72739) and artificial neural network (RMSE = 0.68615) models used. The hybridized models proved to be robust for biodiesel yield modeling in addition to the produced biodiesel serving as an environmentally acceptable and cost-effective alternative for shoreline bioremediation.

Mountain wines produced in specific mountain areas and following singular practices have gained popularity over the last few decades. During this time, the environmental impacts associated with the food and beverage manufacturing sector have become a question of interest. However, the environmental impacts derived from the production of this peculiar wine have scarcely been studied until now. A mountain winery in north Spain has been analyzed as representative of PDO “Cangas” winemaking by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). High-quality inventory data for one year of operation was obtained directly from this facility and two steps have been considered, the vineyard and the winery phases. The main factors involved in grape cultivation and wine production were included. In common with standard winemaking processes, the use of fertilizers and the production of glass bottles were the principal hotspots in the grape cultivation and wine production phases, respectively. Additionally, in the winery here evaluated, waste management also contributed notably to several impacts, mainly due to the employment of traditional practices such as the incineration in situ of vineyard pruning wastes. The carbon footprint obtained for “Cangas” PDO wine was 2.35 kg of CO₂eq per 0.75-l bottle, a value within the range reported in the literature for different wines around the world (0.2–2.5 kg CO₂eq per bottle). A sensitivity analysis has shown that changes in vineyard productivity and the amount of fertilizers applied to the land would strongly affect the environmental performance of the wine manufacturing process. Some alternative scenarios have been proposed, modifying the management of pruning wastes in the vineyard and the packaging material in the winery. Results showed that environmental impacts associated with the production of this mountain wine could be notably reduced simply by reusing a percentage of the bottles and/or composting the organic wastes. Specifically, the carbon footprint would be 40% lower if these two improvements were implemented. Considering the lack of similar studies, further research on the production of mountain wines should be carried out in other regions to increase the knowledge about the environmental impacts associated with the manufacturing of this singular type of wine.

In most European countries, each adult citizen drinks on average more than 20 L of wine every year. Three popular wine-growing areas (Aleksandrovac, Topola, and Orahovac) in Serbia were studied in order to investigate the abundance and uptake of elements from vineyard soil to plants. The specific activities of radionuclides (²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, ¹³⁷Cs, and ⁷Be) were measured in soil, leaves, and grape berries. ²²⁶Ra and ²³²Th were positively correlated with silt and clay and negatively correlated with sand content in soil. Specific activities of natural radionuclides were also negatively correlated with soil pH and CaCO₃. Significant correlations of ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs with organic matter in soil were found. Concentrations of fifteen metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Fe, K, Na, Ca, Mg, and Hg) were also measured in soil samples as well as in grapevine leaves. Analyzed soils were rich in Ni, Cu, Co, Cr, and Cd. High concentrations of Cu were probably caused by long-term use of Cu-based fungicides. Cu was correlated with Fe and organic matter content in soil. Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TF) were calculated to estimate the uptake of radionuclides and metals. Correlations obtained via PCA enable distinction between the sites Aleksandrovac and Topola relative to Orahovac. The first principal component (PC1) accounting for 30.70% of the total variance correlated significantly with soil pH (H₂O), contents of CaCO₃, Na, Ca, ⁴⁰K, and ²²⁶Ra in soil, as well as with ²²⁶Ra, Na, Ca in plants and TFCₐ. The second principal component (PC2), with total variance of 17.21%, was mainly correlated with variables pertaining to Mg, Co, and Cr in the soil and TFK.

With the increase in the occurrence of heavy metal polluted rice in Asian countries, food safety of rice products is of utmost concern to consumers. The current study discusses the distribution of trace elements Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Hg, and Pb in Asian rice-derived food products. Three types of food products, rice noodles, rice vinegar/wine, and rice snacks, were chosen for examination. Most toxic heavy metals and metalloid such as As, Cd, Hg, and Pb were found to be within the safe level of EPA. Since rice vinegar/wine is not the staple food for people, there is no noticeable safety concern. Rice noodles and snacks are consumed with noticeable Se content and they are possible for human Se source addition. With comparison with raw rice, rice-derived food products showed better quality in terms of toxic heavy metals and metalloids. This study is for the first time reporting a thorough understanding of safety concern of rice-derived food products. It provides baselines and understanding on current levels of trace elements and heavy metals in Asian-derived rice products as affected by food processes. It would also help consumers build up confidence on the food safety of Asian rice products.

The guarantee of wine authenticity arises great concern because of its nutritional and economic importance. Phenolic fingerprints have been used as a source of chemical information for various authentication issues, including botanical and geographical origin, as well as vintage age. The local environment affects wine production and especially its phenolic metabolites. Integrated analytical methodologies combined with chemometrics can be applied in wine fingerprinting studies for the determination and establishment of phenolic markers that contain comprehensive and standardized information about the wine profile and how it can be affected by various environmental factors. This review summarizes all the recent trends in the generation of chemometric models that have been developed for treating chromatographic data and have been used for the investigation of critical wine authenticity issues, revealing phenolic markers responsible for the botanical, geographical, and vintage age classification of wines. Overall, the current review suggests that chromatographic methodologies are promising and powerful techniques that can be used for the accurate determination of phenolic compounds in difficult matrices like wine, highlighting the advantages of the applications of supervised chemometric tools over unsupervised for the construction of prediction models that have been successfully used for the classification based on their territorial and botanical origin.

Application of fungicides on grapevines is the main source of soil contamination by copper and zinc. Studies on this issue in relatively young grapevines are common; however, studies that elucidate the metal transfer in a soil-plant-food production system in a centenarian vineyard are scarce. The present work was aimed at tracing the copper and zinc accumulation in three different compartments—soil, plant, and vine products—in young and centenarian vineyards. Soil samples were collected in the middle plant row and rhizosphere positions of the vineyards; samples of root and leaf tissue and of grape juice and wine from these vineyards were also collected. In the centenarian vineyard, the soil available copper, regardless of vineyard position, reached 1100 mg kg⁻¹. Copper in root and leaf tissues reached 12,300 mg kg⁻¹ and 6800 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. In grape juice and wine, copper was 9.08 mg L⁻¹ and 0.78 mg L⁻¹, respectively. The roots retained most part of the metals reducing their transfer through the system. However, Cu levels in the grape juice from the centenarian vineyard exceeded by 908% the limit established by Brazilian and international norms. Zinc concentrations in soil and vine products were within the permitted level. Finally, the magnitude of metal transfer and accumulation is due to decades of cupric fungicide application and varies according to the compartment evaluated. The findings will provide information to rethink the vineyard agricultural practices in order to avoid environmental contamination by metals and compromising the whole food chain.