Food processing 

is the set of methods and techniques used to transform

raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms forconsumption by humans or animals
either in the home or by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes
clean, harvested crops or butchered animal products and uses these to produce
attractive, marketable and often long shelf-life food products. Similar processes are used to
produce animal feed.

Extreme examples of food processing include the delicate preparation of deadly fugu fish or preparing
space food for consumption under zero gravity.

History

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.

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 20th century witnessed a rise in the pursuit
of convenience. Food processing companies marketed their products especially towards middle-class
working wives and mothers. Frozen foods (often credited to Clarence Birdseye) found their success in
sales of juice concentrates and "TV dinners". Processors utilised the perceived value of time to appeal to
the postwar population, and this same appeal contributes to the success of convenience foods today.

Benefits

Benefits of food processing include toxin removal, preservation, easing marketing and distribution tasks,
and increasing food consistency. In addition, it increases seasonal availability of many foods, enables
transportation of delicate perishable foods across long distances and makes many kinds of foods safe to
eat by de-activating spoilage and pathogenic micro-organisms. Modern supermarkets would not be
feasible without modern food processing techniques, long voyages would not be possible and military
campaigns would be significantly more difficult and costly to execute.

Processed foods are usually less susceptible to early spoilage than fresh foods and are better suited for
long distance transportation from the source to the consumer. When they were first introduced, some
processed foods helped to alleviate food shortages and improved the overall nutrition of populations as it
made many new foods available to the masses.

Processing can also reduce the incidence of food borne disease. Fresh materials, such as
fresh produce and raw meats, are more likely to harbour pathogenic micro-organisms (e.g. Salmonella)
capable of causing serious illnesses.

The extremely varied modern diet is only truly possible on a wide scale because of food
processing. Transportation of more exotic foods, as well as the elimination of much hard labour gives the
modern eater easy access to a wide variety of food unimaginable to their ancestors.

The act of processing can often improve the taste of food significantly.

Mass production of food is much cheaper overall than individual production of meals from raw
ingredients. Therefore, a large profit potential exists for the manufacturers and suppliers of processed
food products. Individuals may see a benefit in convenience, but rarely see any direct financial cost
benefit in using processed food as compared to home preparation.

Processed food freed people from the large amount of time involved in preparing and cooking
"natural" unprocessed foods. The increase in free time allows people much more choice in life style than
previously allowed. In many families the adults are working away from home and therefore there is little
time for the preparation of food based on fresh ingredients. The food industry offers products that fulfill
many different needs: From peeled potatoes that only have to be boiled at home to fully prepared ready
meals that can be heated up in the microwave oven within a few minutes.
 Modern food processing also improves the quality of life for people with allergies, diabetics,
and other people who cannot consume some common food elements. Food processing can also add
extra nutrients such as vitamins.

Drawbacks

In general, fresh food that has not been processed other than by washing and simple kitchen
preparation, may be expected to contain a higher proportion of naturally-occurring vitamins, fiber and
minerals than an equivalent product processed by the food industry. Vitamin C, for example, is destroyed
by heat and therefore canned fruits have a lower content of vitamin C than fresh ones. Often nutrients are
deliberately removed from food in an effort to improve its longevity, appearance, or taste. This process is
wide-spread in examples such as bread, pasta, and pre-made meals. As a result, processed foods often
have a higher ratio of calories to other essential nutrients than unprocessed foods, a phenomenon
referred to as "empty calories".

Food processing can introduce hazards not encountered with naturally-occurring products.
Processed foods often include food additives, such as flavourings and texture-enhancing agents, which
may have little or no nutritive value, or be unhealthy. Preservatives added or created during processing to
extend the 'shelf-life' of commercially-available products, such as nitrites or sulphites, may cause adverse
health effects. In theEuropean Union, only food additives (e.g., sweeteners, preservatives, stabilisers) that
have been approved as safe for human consumption by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are
allowed, at specified levels, for use in food products. Approved additives receive an E number (E for
Europe), which at the same time simplifies communication about food additives in the list of ingredients
across the different languages of the EU.Use of low-cost ingredients that mimic the properties of natural
ingredients (e.g. cheap chemically-hardened vegetable oils in place of more-expensive natural saturated
fats or cold-pressed oils) have been shown to cause severe health problems, but are still in widespread
use because of cost concerns and lack of consumer knowledge about the effects of substitute
ingredients.[citation needed]

Sugars and salts are usually added to processed foods as preservatives and to improve the
flavour of the food. As a result eating large amounts of processed foods can lead to excessive intake of
these substances, which can then lead to a variety of health complications including high blood pressure,
weight gain, and diabetes.

Ingredients in processed foods are often of low quality but are 'disguised' by use of
processing.

Because processed food ingredients are often produced in high quantities and distributed
widely amongst value-added food manufacturers, failures in hygiene standards in 'low-level'
manufacturing facilities that produce a widely-distributed basic ingredient can have serious consequences
for many final products.

The addition of these many chemicals for preservation and flavor have been known to cause human and
animal cells to grow rapidly, without going into Apoptosis.[citation needed]

The environmental and social pracitices of food processors are often of a low quality. Because
of cost pressures and the ability to disguise ingredients in the product, processors are often unconcerned
by environmental or social standards. Animals killed for food processing are often kept in industrial
farms with low animal welfare standards.

Some commentators, Michael Pollan for example, believe that the excessive consumption of

food processing has had a number of negative cultural consequences.[6] For example, people eat more
quickly, and less socially than they used to. Food has become too practical and less something to be
enjoyed. People are not as aware of the way food is grown and the natural cycle of the planet.

Performance parameters for food processing

When designing processes for the food industry the following performance parameters may be
taken into account:

 Hygiene, e.g. measured by number of micro-organisms per ml of finished product

 Energy efficiency measured e.g. by “ton of steam per ton of sugar produced”
 Minimization of waste, measured e.g. by “percentage of peeling loss during the peeling of
potatoes'
 Labour used, measured e.g. by ”number of working hours per ton of finished product”
 Minimization of cleaning stops measured e.g. by “number of hours between cleaning stops”
Trends in modern food processing

Cost reduction

 Profit Incentive drives most of the factors behind any industry; the food industry not least of all.
Health concerns are generally subservient to profit potential, leading the food processing industry to
often ignore major health concerns raised by the use of industrially-produced ingredients (partially-
hydrogenated vegetable oils, for example, a well-known and well-researched cause of heart disease,
that is still commonly used in processed food to increase profit margin.)[citation needed] Consumer pressure
has led to a reduction in the use of industrially-produced ingredients in processed food, but the (often
slight) potential for increased profits has barred widespread acceptance by the industry of recognized
health problems caused by over-consumption of processed foods.
 Often farmers take most of the burden in cost reduction because they're usually submitted to
a monopsony by food processing industries.
Health

 Reduction of fat content in final product e.g. by using baking instead of deep-frying in the

production of potato chips, another processed food
 Maintaining the natural taste of the product e.g. by using less artificial sweetener than they used
before.
Hygiene

The rigorous application of industry and government endorsed standards to minimise possible risk and
hazards. In the USA the standard adopted is HACCP.

Efficiency

 Rising energy costs lead to increasing usage of energy-saving technologies,[7] e.g. frequency

converters on electrical drives, heat insulation of factory buildings and heated vessels, energy
recovery systems, keeping a single fish frozen all the way from China to Switzerland.
 Factory automation systems (often Distributed control systems) reduce personnel costs and may
lead to more stable production results.
Industries

Food processing industries and practices include the following:

 Cannery
 Fish processing
 Industrial rendering
 Meat packing plant
 Slaughterhouse
 Sugar industry
 Vegetable packing plant