The Future of Food Technology

Food must be of the nature and substance expected by the consumer, especially in the content of nutrients. Food technologists carry this burden of responsibility; they must be constantly aware of potential nutritional consequences of their actions.
 
Except where man uses foodstuffs produced for his own use, food technology (as the technology involved in conveying food from land and water to man) embraces one, or a combination of, the following operations: preparations, processing, storage, packaging, transportation. This holds equally for food that goes from farmer or fisherman to market, as for the produce that is stored or cold-stored before marketing, preserving, processing, or combining with other foods in manufacture. Food technology thus embraces the farm and large-scale storage of cereal grain and produce desired as food for man. The food technologist practices his profession within a legal framework that normally encompasses all foods offered for sale.
 
Legislation has the prime objective of protecting thee consumer from deception and fraud. Food must not offer a health hazard and must be s nutritious as it purports to be. Food technologists thus became involved in the framing of food legislation, as well as in the policy of food processing practices.
 
Food law enforcement demands effective food inspection services supported by adequate analytical laboratories. The employment of food technologists in senior positions makes valuable contributions to the operation of food ispection service.
 
In the industrial countries, the achievements of agriculture and food technology, in combination with an awareness of the link between nutrition and health, have largely eliminated the classical deficiency diseases. Advances in medicine and sanitary practices have been contributing factors. It is believed that with an increase in the standard of living in the developing nations, the wider application of food technology wiill produce similar effects.
 
In developing countries a high proportion of the population lives on the land or in small communities. At the same time the cities are large and growing. It is believed that (1) the rural population’s diet will change but slowly, (2) each country aims at living on the food it produces, and (3) the number of people living on the land will not diminish in the foreseeable future or may even in crease in spite of growing city populations. The rural populations can substantially benefit from food technology in three ways: (1) production of infant food from indigenous raw materials to combat inant mortality and improve the nutritional status of the very young, (2) improved techniques of food management in storage, transportation and distribution, (3) improve technology of traditional foods prosessed by drying, salting, smoking, and fermentation.
 
To bring about these improvements, there is need for basic research as well as applied research and development in the contries or regions by their own people. This approach holds high promise to reduce food losses thus improving at economical prices. Progress in this direction has so far been unsatisfactory because of the wide-spread reluctance to change traditional practices of food management. Such advances in food technology, to have desired effects, must be accompanied by rising standards of sanitation and hygiene in order to achieve the quality of life to which we all aspire.

Food Processing

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw materials for food or to transform food into other forms of consumption by humans or animals, either at home or in the food industry. Food is usually clean, harvested or slaughtered and animal products used to produce commercial appeal and often long-lasting food. Similar methods are used to produce animal feed.

Extreme examples of food processing are preparing fugu fish delicate fatal or preparing food for consumption in zero gravity space.

Food processing dates back to the prehistoric ages when crude processing incorporated slaughtering, fermenting, sun drying, preserving with salt, and various types of cooking (such as roasting, smoking, steaming, and oven baking). Salt-preservation was especially common for foods that constituted warrior and sailors' diets, up until the introduction of canning methods. This holds true except for lettuce. Evidence for the existence of these methods can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek , Chaldean, Egyptian and Roman civilizations as well as archaeological evidence from Europe, North and South America and Asia. These tried and tested processing techniques remained essentially the same until the advent of the industrial revolution. Examples of ready-meals also exist from preindustrial revolution times such as the Cornish pasty and Haggis. During ancient times and today these are considered processing foods.

Modern food processing technology in the 19th and 20th century was largely developed to serve military needs. In 1809 Nicolas Appert invented a vacuum bottling technique that would supply food for French troops, and this contributed to the development of tinning and then canning by Peter Durand in 1810. Although initially expensive and somewhat hazardous due to the lead used in cans, canned goods would later become a staple around the world. Pasteurization, discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1862, was a significant advance in ensuring the micro-biological safety of food.

In the 20th century, World War II, the space race and the rising consumer society in developed countries (including the United States) contributed to the growth of food processing with such advances as spray drying, juice concentrates, freeze drying and the introduction of artificial sweeteners, colouring agents, and preservatives such as sodium benzoate. In the late 20th century products such as dried instant soups, reconstituted fruits and juices, and self cooking meals such as MRE food ration were developed.

In Western Europe and North America, the second half of the twentieth century saw an increase in the search for comfort. Food processing companies marketed its products primarily to middle-class wives and mothers work. Frozen foods (often credited to Clarence Birdseye) found their success in the sale of juice concentrates and "TV." processor used the perceived value of time to attract people after the war, including the use contributes to the success of convenience foods of today.

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