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Scientists have taken the first step at estimating the best large-scale uses for food processing waste, first analyzing its contents and, based on those findings, proposing production opportunities ranging from sustainable fuels, biogas and electricity to useful chemicals and organic fertilizer. The study was recently published online in Science of the Total Environment. About 2% of the 80 billion pounds of food discarded annually in the United States is attributable to food manufacturing and processing -- with food waste solids sent to landfills or composted and liquids poured into sewers. For the study, researchers collected 46 waste samples, including 14 from large Ohio food processing companies, and divided them into four broad categories: vegetable, fat-rich, industrial sludge, and starchy. They then characterized the sample contents' physical and chemical properties and tested some starchy wastes they determined were good candidates for fermentation into the platform chemical acetone.