Large quantities of food are wasted globally. Sugars such as monosaccharides and oligosaccharides are valuable carbohydrate compounds that can be hydrolyzed from food waste, particularly from carbohydrate-rich bakery waste. These sugars can be extracted from the waste as a value-added compound for manufacturing other food products. Sub-critical water treatment is a new and emerging extraction technique that is considered as a green extraction technology. Water at high temperature and pressure can be used to hydrolyze and extract the sugars. This paper reviews (1) the general process for producing sugars from food wastes, (2) recovery of sugar (particularly oligosaccharides) from food waste via sub-critical water treatment, and (3) the potential of bakery waste as the resources of sugar recovery.

Water use and agricultural practices in the Mediterranean area are unsustainable. The situation is worsened by the increased frequency of droughts and floods, as well as desertification and soil depletion, associated with climate change. The aim of Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) is to foster an integrated programme of sustainable food production and water provision in the framework of the water-energy-food nexus. A monitoring tool developed under PRIMA is based on the Sustainable Development Goals, two of which are specifically dedicated to food security (SDG 2) and sustainable management of water (SDG 6).The 12 indicators that have been chosen to be monitored in the Mediterranean area are: Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI); population overweight (%); land use (%); GHG emissions (total and AFOLU)(tCO₂ₑ); cereal yield (kg/ha); agriculture value added (US$/worker); fertilizer consumption (kg/haₐᵣₐbₗₑ ₗₐₙd); crop water productivity (kg/m³); annual freshwater withdrawal for agriculture (%); population served using with safely managed water service (rural, %); population served using with safely managed sanitation (rural, %); amount of agricultural residues used for energy purposes (t). Datasets for these indicators are collected by international bodies such as the World Bank, WHO, FAO and UNFCCC; recent series are available for almost all Mediterranean countries and are constantly updated. The aim of the proposed monitoring tool is to keep track of the impact generated in by PRIMA research and innovation projects Mediterranean countries.

Hydrothermal processing of microalgae is regarded as a promising technology to generate multitude of energy based and value-added products. The niche of hydrothermal technologies is still under infancy in terms of the technical discrepancies related to research and development. Thus, the present review critically surveyed the recent advancements linked to the influencing factors governing the algal hydrothermal processing in terms of the product yield and quality. The sustainability of hydrothermal technologies as a standalone method and in broader aspects of circular bio-based economy for energy and value-added platform chemicals are comprehensively discussed. Process optimization and strategic integration of technologies has been suggested to improve efficiency, with reduced energy usage and environmental impacts for addressing the energy-food-water supply chains. Within the wider economic transition and sustainability debate, the knowledge gaps identified and the research hotspots fostering future perspective solutions proposed herewith would facilitate its real-time implementation.

The current global developments have the potential to cause a ‘perfect storm’ at the core of the Anthropocene: the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus. To discuss the ethical consequences of these developments, i.e., insufficient access to the life sustaining nexus resources, the analysis is focused on Rawls' theory of justice and its implementation in Germany with a special focus on the FEW nexus. Rawls stresses in his theory of justice the prominent meaning of institutions for a fair society to meet societal challenges and to meet the challenge of our time: a stable and just society.Hence, the realization of his ideas in Germany is scrutinized and income tax and value added tax are interpreted in the sense of Douglas North and John Rawls as institutions and formal rules of society. This paper focuses on taxes as the most important institutional incentive to organize and structure the political, social and economic cooperation and analyses how these incentives affect selected German households (all households, singles, single man and woman, and couples) with respect to income and FEW expenditures.The relevant income and usage data sample (Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe (EVS)) for Germany is used for the analysis of the distribution of income types, FEW expenditures and the revenues of income tax and value added tax, i.e., the main instruments to manage the challenges of the FEW nexus. Therefore two distribution measures have been used: the dispersion of income, taxes and FEW expenditures and their skewness. Five household groups were selected for this analysis: All households, all single households, the single women households, the single men households, as well as the households of couples. The EVS data sample allows the analysis of consequences of the current societal conditions on the various households and thus serves to provide a deeper understanding of the differences between singles and couples but also between single women and men.

Recent advances in detailed multiregional input-output databases offers new opportunities to use these environmental accounting tools to explore the interrelationships between energy, water and food–the energy-water-food nexus. This paper takes the UK asa case study and calculates energy, water and food consumption-based accounts for 1997–2013. Policies, designed to reduce the environmental impact of consumption of products, can intervene at many stages in a product’s whole life-time from ‘cradle to gate’. We use input-output analysis techniques to investigate the interaction between the energy, water and food impacts of products at different points along their supply chains, from the extraction of material and burning of energy, to the point of final consumption. We identify the twenty most important final products whose large energy, water and food impacts could be captured by various demand-side strategies such as reducing food waste or dietary changes. We then use structural-path analysis to calculate the twenty most important supply chains whose impact could be captured by resource efficiency policies which act at the point of extraction and during the manufacturing process. Finally, we recognise that strategies that aim to reduce environmental impacts should not harm the socioeconomic well-being of the UK and her trade partners and suggest that pathways should be targeted where the employment and value added dependencies are relatively low.

Population and economic growth pose unique challenges in securing sufficient water, energy, and food to meet demand at the sub-national (regional), national, and supra-national level. An increasing share of this demand is met through trade and imports. The unprecedented rapid growth, extent, and complexity of global value chains (GVCs) since the 1980s have reshaped global trade. The GVCs – and new economic patterns of regionalization – affect the demands on water, energy, and food within countries and across global supply chains. East Asia is of particular interest due to the region’s rapid economic growth, substantial population size, high interdependence of the region’s economies, and varying degree of resource availability. While greater interdependence across the region has increased the efficiency of production and trade, these activities require the input of water-energy-food and generate disturbances in the environment. The transnational inter-regional input-output approach is utilized in a tele-connected Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN) analysis of the East Asia GVC to assess competing demands for these resources and environmental outcomes.This analysis demonstrates the hidden virtual flows of water, energy, and food embodied in intra-regional and transnational inter-regional trade. China’s current national export oriented economic growth strategy in East Asia is not sustainable from the WEFN perspective. China is a net virtual exporter of nexus resources to Japan and South Korea. China’s prioritization of economic growth and trade in low value added and pollution intensive sectors consumes a great amount of nexus resources within its territory to satisfy consumers’ demands in Japan and South Korea. Japan’s Kanto and Kinki regions and South Korea’s Sudokwon region were the major beneficiaries while China bore the environmental burden associated with the production of exports. For example, net virtual exports from China’s East region included over 1.2billionm³ of scarce water and 61.3million metric (CO₂ equivalent) tons of greenhouse gases (i.e. CO₂, NH₄, and N₂O) and 2 million metric tons of SOₓ emissions.Trade is an important mechanism for overcoming resource bottlenecks, but, taking into account environmental linkages, regional specialization is not necessarily mutually beneficial. This analysis demonstrates a mismatch between regional water-energy-food availability and final resource consumption and the lack of attention for environmental impacts in national economic growth strategies. Resource scarce countries like China must, therefore, incorporate trade-off decisions between pursuing national economic growth, incurring environmental degradation, and food security into strategic regional development policies.

The relationship between food-energy-water resources and agricultural sustainability has got a significant policy attraction that generally in favor of livelihood of the poor, which is largely affected by climate change, food security challenges, poor access of water resources, and less access of electricity. These challenges generally faced by less developing countries, while Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has no exemption to escape out from this food-water-energy poverty nexus due to inadequate socio-economic and environmental action programs of sustainable development. This study examined the dynamic nexus between agricultural sustainability and food-energy-water poverty in a panel of selected SSA countries over the period of 1980–2013. The study used pooled least squares regression, pooled fixed effects, and pooled random effects regression techniques to absorb country-specific-time-variant shocks. The Hausman (1978) test results reveal that country-specific shocks influence the food-energy-water poverty model; therefore, the fixed effects regression results are consider a better fit model than that of the pooled random effect model. The overall results conclude that agricultural value added, cereal yields and forest area significantly decreases food-energy-water poverty nexus, leading to higher economic growth and price levels at the cost of environmental degradation. In general, agricultural sustainability is the prerequisite for reducing food-energy-water poverty.

Environmental sustainability agenda are generally compromised by energy, water, and food production resources, while in the recent waves of global financial crisis, it mediates to increase the intensity of air pollutants, which largely affected the less developing countries due to their ease of environmental regulation policies and lack of optimal utilization of economic resources. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are no exception that majorly hit by the recent global financial crisis, which affected the country’s natural environment through the channel of unsustainable energy-water-food production. The study employed panel random effect model that addresses the country-specific time-invariant shocks to examine the non-linear relationship between water-energy-food resources and air pollutants in a panel of 19 selected SSA countries, for a period of 2000–2014. The results confirmed the carbon-fossil-methane environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that turned into inverted U-shaped relationships in a panel of selected SSA countries. Food resources largely affected greenhouse gas (GHG), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions while water resource decreases carbon dioxide (CO₂), fossil fuel, and CH₄ emissions in a region. Energy efficiency improves air quality indicators while industry value added increases CO₂ emissions, fossil fuel energy, and GHG emissions. Global financial crisis increases the risk of climate change across countries. The study concludes that although SSA countries strive hard to take some “good” initiatives to reduce environmental degradation in a form of improved water and energy sources, however, due to lack of optimal utilization of food resources and global financial constraints, it leads to “the bad” and “the ugly” sustainability reforms in a region.

Micronized grape skin powder (GS) and maltodextrin-encapsulated grape skin phenolics (eGSP) were recovered from winemaking byproducts as potential food ingredients. Hygroscopicity was higher in eGSP than in GS. Both eGSP and GS had intense color and less fermented odor than the wet GS. Phenolic content, antioxidant activity and inhibitory effectiveness towards enzymes related to hyperglycemia damage were ~ double in eGSP than in GS. During storage, the rate of phenolic degradation diminished with decreasing aw from 0.75 to 0.11. Anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins were less stable than monomeric flavanols and flavonols. The rate of decrease in antioxidant activity was lower compared to the extent of phenolic degradation. At aw 0.11 no degradation was observed in eGSP, while anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin contents slightly decreased in GS (k∗103 in the range 0.69–2.94d−1). Criteria for GS and eGSP storage were defined in relation to their final uses.The conversion of winemaking by products into value added products is considered the unique strategy to overcome the cost of not recycling, including waste disposal and decontamination of affected areas. As winemaking is a seasonal activity, long-term stability of recovered byproducts is needed for their further utilization. GS and eGSP represent potential value-added food ingredients for wide-ranging applications (antioxidant, colorant, phenolic sources) and tailor-made functionalities (inhibitors of enzymes related to hyperglycemia). The results obtained led to the definition of criteria for GS and eGSP storage, which depend on their final use in foods, as illustrated by two discussed scenarios.