초록
<P><B>Summary</B></P><P>With the advancement in science and technology, the importance of bioconversion of industrial waste into value‐added products through biotechnological route has been realised. Moreover, to make the process economic and environment responsive, agro‐industrial waste/by‐products can be used as substrates in fermentation processes as an inexpensive raw material. In the field of food biotechnology, organic acids represent the third largest category among the biological products, which can be produced chemically or by fermentation process. Among organic acids, lactic acid holds an important position because of its multivariate applications in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, textiles and other industries. Traditionally, lactic acid was produced from pure substrates, but agricultural feedstocks and industrial by‐products have evoked the interest of researchers to use them as raw materials for the biotechnological production of lactic acid. The utilisation of biomass has gained major attention due to environmental hazards, scarcity of fossil fuels and meet the increasing world food and feed demand. Integrated biorefinery approaches have also been adopted for the production of lactic acid along with primary product to minimise the cost. This review provides comprehensive information on the recent advances in biotechnological production of lactic acid utilising agro‐industrial waste/by‐products.</P>