Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the making of convenience foods. Some food processing methods play important roles in reducing food waste and improving food preservation, thus reducing the total environmental impact of agriculture and improving food security.
The Nova classification groups food according to different food processing techniques.
Primary food processing is necessary to make most foods edible.
Secondary food processing turns ingredients into familiar food like products, such as bread.
Tertiary food processing results in ultra-processed food like products and has been widely criticized for contributing to Metabolic diseases such as, obesity and most non acute Inflammation diseases including Autoimmune disease.
These ultra-processed food like products contain added man-made chemicals and preservatives that are not naturally occurring and/or easily extracted from hybridized and/or genetically manipulated plants such as, sugar, corn syrup and seed oils, and also are combined with unnecessary added fiber creating an unhealthy food like product causing metabolic health issues of humans and farm animals.
Primary food processing
Primary food processing turns agricultural products, such as raw wheat kernels or livestock, into something that can eventually be eaten. This category includes ingredients that are produced by ancient processes such as drying, threshing, winnowing and milling grain, shelling nuts, and butchering animals for meat. It also includes deboning and cutting meat, freezing and smoking fish and meat, extracting and filtering oils, canning food, preserving food through food irradiation, and candling eggs, as well as homogenizing and pasteurizing milk.
Contamination and spoilage problems in primary food processing can lead to significant public health threats, as the resulting foods are used so widely. However, many forms of processing contribute to improved food safety and longer shelf life before the food spoils. Commercial food processing uses control systems such as hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to reduce the risk of harm.
Secondary food processing Baking bread is an example of secondary food processing. Secondary food processing is the everyday process of creating food from ingredients that are ready to use. Baking bread, regardless of whether it is made at home, in a small bakery, or in a large factory, is an example of secondary food processing. Fermenting fish and making wine, beer, and other alcoholic products are traditional forms of secondary food processing. Sausages are a common form of secondary processed meat, formed by comminution (grinding) of meat that has already undergone primary processing. Most of the secondary food processing methods known to humankind are commonly described as cooking methods.
Tertiary food processing Tertiary food processing is the commercial production of what is commonly called processed food. These are ready-to-eat or heat-and-serve foods, such as frozen meals and re-heated airline meals.
Examples of unit operations common to many food products include cleaning, coating, concentrating, controlling, disintegrating, drying, evaporat- ing, fermentation, forming, heating/cooling (heat exchange), materials handling, mix- ing, packaging, pumping, separating, and others.
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Food Science And Technology
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