Sustainable Management of Agro-Food Waste: Chapter 3, Rice bran valorization: use as a source of proteins, carbohydrates, oil, and bioactive compounds

Agroindustrial residues have been explored as a source of biocompounds aiming their valorization and minimizing the environmental impacts caused by their inadequate deposition. Rice bran is a by-product of the rice milling process, found worldwide and underutilized in the food industry and recognized as an excellent source of carbohydrates, proteins, oil, dietary fiber, and phytochemicals. After the oil extraction, a new by-product is generated, the defatted rice bran, which has been used mainly to produce animal feed, requiring research to value products obtained from this biomass. Several scientific research has focused on the extraction and application of rice bran compounds; however, its full use, such as in an integrated biorefinery system, still needs scientific efforts to enable the industrial application of rice bran. This book chapter discusses recent research about exploiting rice bran biomass, demonstrating this potential, especially in the food industry, by developing value-added ingredients.