In the food industry, a wide range of consumer products is produced by blending together intermediate products. These intermediates are often purified extracts from agro-materials. The purification processes guarantee a standard quality and broad applicability, but are resource intensive and lead to the production of low-value byproducts. Non-conventionally produced intermediates could avoid these drawbacks. Hence, a portfolio of intermediates can be sought that satisfies the requirements of the food industry while reducing resource use. After developing a mathematical programming approach for this decision problem, this article quantifies the effect of using non-conventional intermediates while considering production interdependencies and customer requirements. An illustrative case for the processing of legumes shows that mildly refined intermediates can be selected to cover the demand for the majority of considered products. While minimising cost, energy use and water use were reduced by 22% and 37%, respectively. The case results indicate that using fractionation pathways leading to intermediates with lower purity provides opportunities for more resource-efficient production in food industry.

中文翻译：

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通过使用非常规中间产品提高食品行业的资源效率

在食品工业中，大量的消费品是通过将中间产品混合在一起生产的。这些中间体通常是从农业材料中提纯的提取物。纯化过程保证了标准的质量和广泛的适用性，但资源密集，导致产生低价值的副产品。非常规生产的中间体可以避免这些缺点。因此，可以寻找满足食品工业要求同时减少资源使用的中间体组合。在为这个决策问题开发了数学规划方法之后，本文量化了使用非常规中间体的影响，同时考虑了生产的相互依赖性和客户要求。豆类加工的一个说明性案例表明，可以选择轻度精制的中间体来满足大多数考虑产品的需求。在最大限度降低成本的同时，能源使用和用水分别减少了 22% 和 37%。案例结果表明，使用导致纯度较低的中间体的分馏途径为食品工业中资源效率更高的生产提供了机会。