Exploring the Functional Ingredients from Underutilized Plant Crops and Food Wastes—A Way Towards Food Security and Nutritional Sustainability

From the last few decades, food security and nutritional sustainability have become the two main concerning elements due to increasing population, climatic changes, water scarcity, troubled farmers, food wastes and over-exploitation of three major staple food crops (rice, wheat and maize) which cover about half of the world’s plant-derived calories. It is believed that by 2050, the world must feed nine billion people. The food demands will be 60% higher than it’s today. Here in this chapter, we will be discussing about the green approaches through which we can promote food security and sustainability by the potential use of underutilized plant crops and reprocessing of food wastes to explore their functional ingredients and nutraceutical effects. Research studies proved that the underutilized plant crops and food processing residues are the gold mines of functional ingredients which have the potential to provide nutritional, biological and technological functionalities. Various extraction processes provide us an innovative approach to increase the production of functional ingredients; here we have included solid-liquid extraction, enzyme-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, pulsed electric field extraction, Soxhlet extraction, pressurized fluid extraction, ultrasound- assisted extraction and supercritical fluid extraction. Extraction and valorization process produces high-value functional ingredients including proteins, dietary fibres, colorants, polysaccharides, phytochemicals, flavouring components, etc. Through this book chapter, we will insight our knowledge on functional ingredients from various underutilized plant crops and food wastes, their extraction processes and their utilization in functional foods and nutraceuticals.