Lactic acid

Starchy biomass gained attention due to its eco-friendly nature, less availability of fossil fuels, and food and feed demand. With advancements in science, the importance of agri-food waste's bioconversion into organic acids like lactic acid (LA) in different ways has been recognized and adopted. Moreover, to make these processes economically viable and environmentally balanced, agri-food wastes are the inexpensive and renewable bioresources. The interest in LA is because of its high value-added nature. The attention of researchers was evoked by the use of agricultural feedstocks as a raw substrate in the production of LA using biotechnological processes. The process of integration between different processes should be developed in such a way that LA should be the primary product to minimize the cost of production. The major challenges involved in LA extraction are technical optimization in the processes of fermentation, purification, and recovery. In the area of food biotechnology, organic acids are the largest category of value-added bio-products among all. This book chapter provides detailed information about recent advances in biotechnology of microbial-LA production using different agri-industrial wastes and by-products.