From Farm to Fork and Beyond: Nutrient and Bioactive Valorization

Food loss and waste represent a largely overlooked reservoir of essential nutrients and bioactive compounds being one of the most pressing and underaddressed challenges of contemporary food systems. Losses occur across the entire supply chain, from primary production, where surplus and aesthetically substandard produce are discarded before ever reaching the market, to post-harvest handling, processing, distribution, and consumption. Despite their diverse origins, these discarded food matrices retain significant concentrations of polyphenols, dietary fiber, essential fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins, and bioactive peptides. The discard of these matrices results in a considerable loss of dietary exposure to compounds with established roles in the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases but also compounds the environmental and economic burden of global food waste.Recent advances in green extraction technologies, including ultrasound-assisted, enzyme-assisted, supercritical fluid, and pressurized liquid extraction, now enable the efficient and sustainable recovery of these compounds from complex food waste matrices while minimizing environmental impact. When paired with high-resolution analytical platforms such as LC-MS/MS, NMR, and FTIR, these approaches allow for rigorous characterization of recovered bioactives with respect to identity, concentration, and structural integrity. However, critical gaps remain. The bioaccessibility and bioavailability of compounds recovered from food waste streams, their functional stability when incorporated into food or supplement formulations, and their ultimate impact on specific health outcomes remain insufficiently explored. Bridging green extraction science with nutrition-focused endpoints is therefore an urgent and underaddressed research priority.This Research Topic aims to consolidate cutting-edge research at the intersection of food loss and waste valorization, green analytical chemistry, and human nutrition. It takes a deliberately broad view of the food supply chain, encompassing losses at the production stage (surplus and rejected produce) as well as processing residues and invites contributions that connect the characterization and recovery of bioactive compounds with their nutritional relevance, food safety, functional applicability, and potential to inform more sustainable and equitable food systems. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary work that bridges the gap between analytical science, nutrition research, and food policy.We welcome submissions on the following themes:o Bioactive profiling of food loss and waste matrices: Characterization of polyphenols, carotenoids, dietary fiber, essential fatty acids, and bioactive peptides retained in food by-products and processing residues, with emphasis on retention across different loss stages or supply chain points.o Green extraction of bioactive compounds: Optimization of ultrasound-assisted, microwave-assisted, enzyme-assisted, supercritical fluid, and pressurized liquid extraction applied to food waste matrices, with a focus on efficiency, selectivity, and compound integrity.o Analytical characterization of recovered bioactives: Application of chromatographic, spectroscopic, and mass spectrometric platforms for identification, quantification, and structural characterization of bioactives from food waste, including compound stability under processing and storage conditions.o Bioaccessibility, bioavailability, and health functionality: In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo assessment of food waste-derived bioactives, targeting antioxidant capacity, gut microbiota modulation, inflammatory markers, and cardiometabolic outcomes.o Food safety and quality assurance in valorization: Assessment of microbial, chemical, and physical safety risks associated with recovering and reincorporating food loss and waste-derived matrices into food or supplement formulations.o Food systems, policy, and sustainability dimensions of valorization: Analysis of regulatory frameworks, economic feasibility, and supply chain models that support or hinder the implementation of valorization strategies, including contributions addressing equity, accessibility, and the alignment of food loss reduction with public health and sustainability goals.o Post-harvest loss quantification and mitigation covering losses due to inadequate storage, handling, and contamination at the farm and early supply chain level, including mitigation strategies and recovery of nutrients and bioactives from affected produceWe invite original research articles, systematic reviews, and perspective pieces from researchers, clinicians, food technologists, and policy experts working at the interface of food science, nutrition, and sustainability. Together, we aim to build a reference collection that not only advances scientific knowledge but also provides actionable insights toward a more resilient and nutrition-aware food system. Topic editors: Irene Domínguez Pérez, Kandi Sridhar, Ph.D. | MSCA Fellow, José Pinela, Jelena Vladic Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84740/from-farm-to-fork-and-beyond-nutrient-and-bioactive-valorization