Bioprocessing of marine crustacean side‐streams into bioactives: a review

Abstract This review summarizes the most common biological methods and their conditions for the recovery of bioactive compounds such as chitin/chitosan, proteins/peptides and carotenoids from marine crustacean processing side‐streams (MCPS). Chitin can be efficiently extracted from MCPS by adding proteases to hydrolyze the proteins (enzymatic hydrolysis), or by using (non‐)lactic acid fermentation to digest and eliminate nonchitinous compounds. Peptides with antimicrobial, antioxidant and antihypertensive activities can be generated via fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysis; in addition, carotenoid extraction can be enhanced by both techniques. This review also briefly demonstrates the advantages, challenges and future perspectives of applying biological methods for the valorization of MCPS. These biological methods may provide an alternative solution to minimize the environmental and economic impact of inefficient waste management. Moreover, MCPS can be used to produce high value‐added compounds with potent bioactivities. Ultimately, these compounds produced via optimized biological methods can be commercialized for different applications. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry