Food waste is considered a serious global societal problem. How to degrade of food waste in a green and effective way has been to a hot topic. In this work, a method with hot water extraction pretreatment of food waste was investigated and optimized. Under the optimal conditions, more than half of the solid food waste could be transferred to soluble sugars. Meanwhile, in order to improve the tolerance of Rhizopus arrhizus on the food waste hydrolysate, UV combined with chemical mutagenesis were carried out, and a mutant of Rhizopus RH-7-13-807 was obtained. With the mutant strain, the yield of fumaric acid fermented from food waste increased to 1.8 times compared with the original strain, and 23.94 g/L fumaric acid was obtained from the fermentation. Besides, the COD of food waste was evaluated for the degradation of food waste by the Rhizopus RH-7-13-807. The process would decrease the quantity of food waste to be disposed of, and benefit the environment.

AIMS: To evaluate synergetic effect of slight acidic electrolysed water (SAEW) and fumaric acid (FA) on inactivation of total viable count (TVC) and Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium in fresh beef and to study shelf life and sensory quality of beef. METHODS AND RESULTS: Inoculated samples was dipped for 1, 3 and 5 min and immersed at 25, 40 and 60°C in SAEW, strong acidic electrolysed water (StAEW) and SAWE + FA. Treated meat was air‐packaged and stored at 4 or 10°C. During storage, sampling was performed at 2‐day intervals for microbiological and sensory changes. TVC was decontaminated at 40°C for 3 min by more than 3·70 log CFU g⁻¹, and examined pathogens were reduced by more than 2·60 log CFU g⁻¹with SAEW + FA treatment. This treatment prolonged shelf life of beef meat up to 9 and 7 days when stored at 4 and 10°C, respectively. CONCLUSION: The combined treatment of SAEW + FA showed greater bactericidal effect and prolonged shelf life compared with individual treatments. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Combined treatment of SAEW and FA can be a suitable hurdle technology reducing bacteria in fresh beef, substantially enhancing their microbial safety and decreasing pathogens growth during storage.