7. Bacterial Cellulose Production from Agro-Industrial and Food Wastes

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a popular substitution of plant cellulose due to its higher purity and better properties. It has vast application in various industries, e.g. in paper production, in wound healing, in food packaging and many more. In commercial scale, Gluconacetobacter xylinus is the common species used. Large-scale production of bacterial cellulose, however, is costly with defined chemical medium, i.e. Hestrin and Schramm (HS) medium. Thus, most researchers are seeking alternative from the available wastes in order to reduce the cost. Numerous agro-industrial wastes were utilized as the feedstock for BC production, e.g. pineapple waste, citrus peel waste and extracted date syrup. Most of these agro-wastes are considered as defined medium as the changes of the composition are rather small. The other potential waste that can be used as a feedstock is the household food wastes. Since food waste generation and disposal are major problem in most of the countries, valorization of this waste for BC production may be a win-win situation. Nevertheless, food waste if used as a medium may impose the problem of inconsistent quality of BC as food waste collected typically has inconsistent composition and thus a complex undefined medium. This chapter is centred on comparing the feasibility of using food waste as a low-cost medium to produce BC. Moreover, the effect of food waste medium on the quality of BC is compared with the BC produced from pineapple peel juice medium. In addition, the pre-treatment of food waste and its effect on the properties of the BC are briefly discussed.