Foods Webinar | Rethinking Food Waste: Environmental Impact and Sustainable Valorization through Green Technologies
the chair
Food waste is something we all encounter in our daily lives, arising from a wide range of activities, from households and food services to agricultural and agri-industrial production. Often, we are unaware of its wider consequences. When food is wasted, it is not only the food itself that is lost, but also the water, energy, and labor used to produce, process, and distribute it. Over time, these losses accumulate, creating significant environmental and social challenges. This is why improving our understanding of food waste and developing effective strategies to reduce it have become more important than ever.
In today’s webinar, we will look at food waste from two different but connected points of view. First, we will explore how food waste at home affects the environment and how simple models can help us better understand the real impact of our everyday choices. This will be the focus of our first talk, “From Waste to Awareness: Modeling the Environmental Impact of Household Food Waste”.
In the second presentation, “PEF Technology for Waste Food Valorization: A Sustainable Green Approach to Extracting High-Value Products”, we will see how innovative green technologies can turn agri-industrial food waste into something useful. In particular, we will learn how pulsed electric field (PEF) technology can help recover valuable compounds from food waste in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.
Together, these presentations show that food waste is not just a problem, but also an opportunity—an opportunity to make more informed choices and to develop smarter, more sustainable solutions.
Date: 5 February 2026
Time: 3:00 p.m. CET | 9:00 a.m. EST
Webinar ID: 851 7864 9095
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Meet Our Speakers
Prof. Giovani De Feo
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy;
Giovanni De Feo is an Associate Professor of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at the University of Salerno, Italy, where he teaches Industrial Ecology in the MSc programs in Chemical Engineering and Management Engineering within the Department of Industrial Engineering. He holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering and is a member of the PhD Board of the doctoral program Innovative Engineering Technologies for Industrial Sustainability (IETIS). His research focuses on municipal solid waste management, circular economy, environmental impact assessment, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), sustainability of packaging and food systems, and advanced waste and material treatment technologies. A significant part of his work is dedicated to integrating quantitative environmental assessment with decision-support tools, scenario analysis, and sustainability indicators. Alongside his scientific activity, he is the founder of Greenopoli, an award-winning environmental education and science communication project that has involved thousands of students and educators, aiming to bridge rigorous environmental research with societal engagement and behavioral change.
From Waste to Systems Change, Governance, Innovation and Integration for Sustainable Food Futures
Edited by Dr. Gianpiero Pataro & Dr. Giovanni De Feo