What is Food Processing?
Food processing can be defined as the process of transformation of agricultural products into food or conversion of food from one form to other forms. Various processes of food processing may include the processing of raw materials into food through various chemical and physical processes. Different activities involved in this process include cooking, mincing, liquefaction, canning, pickling, emulsification, and maceration.
Clean, harvested crops or butchered and slaughtered animal products are taken to produce attractive, marketable, and life-long food products with a higher shelf life. However, various processes of food processing may also defer the nutritional value of the food and the processed food might even pose a health hazard if it’s laced with harmful additives, preservatives, colorings, etc.
Food Processing is the process of transforming food items into a form that can be used or consumed. It involves the transformation of converting the raw materials into consumable food via different necessary physical and chemical processes. Various activities that can be covered in this process are mincing, cooking, canning, liquefaction, pickling, macerating, and emulsification.
It always takes clean, harvested crops, or butchered and slaughtered animal products to produce attractive, marketable, and in some special cases, life-long food products that do not get spoiled within a few days. However, food processing can also lower the nutritional value of the food and might include additives to keep them fresh that might adversely affect health and the body.
Biology is a subject which is classified into Botany which deals with plants and their properties and Zoology which covers all details of other living beings on earth, their living and eating habits. This is a subject that will highly help students in learning and understanding the ecosystem. Usually, students think that Biology is really a tough & vast subject with a huge syllabus structure. But the reality is that Biology is a very scoring and easy subject. If you plan the syllabus well and study all the concepts in every chapter by practicing the diagrams and equations in a separate note, you can easily revise them before your exams.
Biology is really important because it helps us learn and understand how living things work and how they function and interact on multiple levels in the ecosystem.
First and foremost, science related to biology is mainly only about studying life.
Second, it provides an in-depth, scientific understanding of how all living and nonliving organisms interact with each other in the ecosystem that prevails.
Third, it gives insights into how diverse life forms are formed in the ecosystem.
By understanding how a particular cell works in both healthy or diseased states in any living organisms, cell biologists working in any animal, plant, and medical science will be able to develop various new vaccines, more effective and high-level medicines, plants with improved growth rate and qualities, and because of this increased knowledge, the scientists will have a better understanding of how all living things live on this earth in order to improve the quality of the ecosystem.
FAQs on Food Processing
1. What is the role of biology in food production and processing?
Biologists play a key role in producing food and drinks and developing new products in the market. Biotechnologists are the ones who design the manufacturing processes and decide or design the machinery used to produce any form of new food and drink. This allows products with a consistent flavor, color and texture to be produced in large quantities and enables batch production.
2. Why do we process food?
Almost all food items that we use daily are processed in some way or the other before it is consumed. Commercially, the main reason that we process food is simply to eliminate some micro-organisms which may cause any disease and to extend the shelf life of the particular food. Simply cooking or even combining several foods with other edible foodstuffs to specifically create a new recipe is also considered a form of food processing procedure.
3. What are the effects of food processing?
In this fast-moving world everything has been made ready to eat and processed to save the time of preparation. But this lifestyle is very unhealthy for the living generation. Because highly processed foods are often considered as including unhealthy levels of added sugar, sodium, and fat in them. These ingredients make the food we eat taste better and make us eat a lot, but too much of them can lead to serious health issues like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
4. What is the equipment used in food processing?
Food processing equipment is a wide term that refers to the components or raw materials we are going to use for particular food production, type of processing machines we would use, and any particular systems used to handle, prepare, cook, store, and package food and food products.
5. What are some known advantages of food processing?
Food Processing increases the availability and convenience of having any type of food we would like to consume within minutes. Food processing allows us to eat a greater variety and experience many types of foods than our elders and ancestors because we can safely preserve and package those foods and we are able to easily transport foods from across the globe to our homes.
