2. Sustainable food systems

It is an inevitable reality that food materials are necessary for the survival of life. In today's world, everybody is producing as much food as they can, but still 800 million people are starving. It is estimated that about 2 billion of the number are included with malnourished people. There can be many reasons for hunger. As well as environmental reasons such as soil and water deficiency and climate change, control of markets and food systems by companies, unfair income distribution, and prices can also create hunger [5]. The last half-century has been endeavoring to end the hunger and malnutrition of the world, to enable people to access healthy food and to produce food using sustainable technologies. It is obvious that the concepts of food, health, safety, and environment and the demographic and ethnic structure of the societies, as well as the lifestyle and social development levels of the societies, are mutually connotations. However, taking environmental considerations into consideration, it is essential to take important steps in order to apply green production principles, go beyond awareness in the awareness of the situation, and make food production based on sustainable bases.

resources need to be used effectively for both food production and food consumption. For that reason, food industry officials have to become conscious on sustainable green food production and are researching alternative food processing techniques. There is an increasing public awareness of health, environment, and safety hazards associated with the use of organic solvents in food processing. High cost of organic solvents and increasingly stringent environmental regulations have pointed out the need for development of new and clean technologies for food product processing [3]. At this point, the importance of new and environmentally friendly techniques and their multidisciplinary combinations becomes noticeable. Those alternative techniques have been focused to acquire energy from various sources while controlling the emission rate as well as applying the limits on food safety and control. Among them, being a green technology, microwave-assisted extraction (as a side branch of extraction) has been proposed in a new promising way to produce inevitable variety of food production [4].

160 Emerging Microwave Technologies in Industrial, Agricultural, Medical and Food Processing

Microwave-assisted green extraction technology is a new promising warranty of alternative investment channels for innovative applications and scale-up processes. The possibility of using microwave-assisted technologies has received an increasing attention to develop new technologies for the production of materials or to substitute traditional technologies based on the use of organic solvents. This multidisciplinary synergy will allow scientists to develop products of standardized concentration of active ingredients and will simultaneously produce nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products of much higher concentration and quality than possible by conventional chemical engineering unit operations, such as liquid/liquid extrac-

In the context of this chapter, the importance of microwave-assisted green extraction technology focusing on food examples will be introduced. Besides, while practicing production techniques about food, some technical expressions such as raw material selection, energy efficiency, resource and waste management, product valorization, fractionation, and analysis methods will also be explained in the framework of emerging microwave technologies' concept. To conclude, within the scope of this chapter, how to produce different foodstuffs or raw materials not only by classical methods but also by cooperation with different innovative techniques of microwave technology will be explained with examples of various food samples

It is an inevitable reality that food materials are necessary for the survival of life. In today's world, everybody is producing as much food as they can, but still 800 million people are starving. It is estimated that about 2 billion of the number are included with malnourished people. There can be many reasons for hunger. As well as environmental reasons such as soil and water deficiency and climate change, control of markets and food systems by companies, unfair income distribution, and prices can also create hunger [5]. The last half-century has been endeavoring to end the hunger and malnutrition of the world, to enable people to access healthy food and to produce food using sustainable technologies. It is obvious that the concepts of food,

tion, distillation, mechanical micronization, liquid- and/or gas-phase reactions, etc.

while providing theoretical background on food processes.

2. Sustainable food systems

According to the definition of the United Nations, sustainability is stated as "the ability of future generations to meet today's needs without jeopardizing their ability to meet their own needs" [6]. So, it can be defined and practiced in a way that today's social order will enable the living standards and business models to be used without damaging the possibilities of meeting the needs of future generations of resources that exist in nature. It is possible to classify the concept of sustainability as three-dimensional when going out from the definitions made. The factors that make up these dimensions can be grouped into three classes: social, economic, and ecological. The common goal for all factors is to solve current global problems.

Sustainability in food, which is the starting point of the food industry, is possible with adequate systems and applications to produce adequate and high-quality agricultural products at reasonable costs and to continuously improve the protection of agricultural land, farmers, and the environment and natural farming resources. Good sustainable food production practices are systems developed for this purpose. The concept of "sustainability" has gained importance because of the ever-increasing world population and increasing new resource requirements, rising energy prices, and climate changes caused by greenhouse gases. Environmental, social, and economic indicators can be taken into account as indicators of sustainability in food production.

It is generally known that sustainability has economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Sustainability in food is the system in which the social, economic, and environmental dimensions are taken into account in the process from the production to consumption of food. Processes such as the cooperation and cooperation of the civilian people or a group about food, forming their own structures, are defined as sustainable food systems [7]. These structures and processes include production, processing, distribution, wholesale and retail sales, consumption, and waste disposal. Sustainable food systems consist of producers' markets, producer-consumer cooperatives, community-supported agricultural systems, ecological markets, urban gardening, slow food systems, and food banks. The aims of sustainable food systems that have been developed in recent years in our country are defined as:


The research shows that local products are sold in sustainable food systems and that products are produced by sustainable agricultural systems; thus, natural resources, especially local seeds, are protected. It is stated that the producers are actively involved, developing the producer and consumer interaction and increasing the solidarity. Provision of food safety and security in sustainable food systems, conservation and improvement of health, prevention of diseases, protection of nature, protection of agricultural biodiversity, strengthening of local and rural areas, and ensuring socioeconomic development are taken into consideration.

For example, water can be removed from acetic acid by distillation or liquid-liquid extraction using an organic solvent. Liquid-liquid extraction is used in the industrial separation of many mixtures. In the inorganic chemical industry, extraction is carried out at the removal of water from materials with high boiling points such as phosphoric acid, boric acid, and sodium

Microwave-Assisted Green Extraction Technology for Sustainable Food Processing

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Solid-liquid extraction is called separation of one or more components contained in the solid

Solid-liquid extraction is the process of separating sugar from sugar beet by means of hot water in a food industry; extracting oils from plants such as peanut, soybean, flaxseed, bean, and cottonseed through organic solvents such as hexane, acetone, and ether; and extracting

The most important key parameter in an effective extraction process is the choice of an appropriate solvent. "Similar solver" principle is used. In general, the following considerations

The efficient use of resources in different branches of the food industry and the maintenance of sustainability is a matter that has been on the move in recent times. At the same time as the use of renewable energy resources, the sector may be economically more advantageous in terms of product cost. Green technology can be applied in many important areas such as logistics, packaging, and waste disposal in food sector. The application of the green extraction technology, which has been particularly popular in recent years, to the food sector has been one of the

hydroxide and organics containing hydrogen bonds such as formaldehyde.

with the aid of a bit solvent. The process can be considered in four stages:

a. The phase change of the solute phase and the solvent-phase flow.

oils of tea and fish from tea leaves to be used in different processes.

3.2. New green techniques for sustainable food production and processing

b. Mechanical separation of the extract phase.

c. The separation of the solute from the extract phase.

d. The refined solvent is to be sent to the process.

3.1.3. Solvent selection in extraction process

are applied when choosing solvents:

e. Surface tension between phases

a. Dispersion coefficient b. Density and viscosity

c. Resolution d. Selectivity

f. Reusability

3.1.2. Solid-liquid extraction
