Theme 05Sustainable Food Systems
Food waste as feedstock: a circular bio-economy roadmap
Dr. Emmanuel Kato·Lecturer, Bio-Engineering·June 10, 2025·10 min read
From brewery spent grain to pineapple peels — a systems view of turning Uganda’s agro-industrial waste into new value.
Every tonne of pineapple processed leaves roughly 400 kilogrammes of peel and core behind. Every hectolitre of beer brewed generates 20 kilogrammes of spent grain. In aggregate, Uganda’s agro-industry discards millions of tonnes of biomass each year.
A three-tier hierarchy
We propose a valorisation hierarchy — food-grade recovery first, feed and materials second, energy last — and map it against the country's five largest agro-processing streams.
Policy hooks
The roadmap identifies six near-term regulatory changes that would unlock private investment in circular processing — none of them requiring new public spending.
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