Food Science & Technology - Beyond Culinary Practices
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Food Science is the science (chemistry, biology, physics, math) of foods. Food Technology is the application of the science/knowledge to improve foods. There are many other sub-components of Food Science. However, understanding Food Science as subject needs understanding the principles and objectives of food processing and preservation.
The pricnciples of food processing is modifying foods to serve different purposes. Foods are not nourishing only to humans, but to many other lives (germs, pests, etc) and humans comptete all these for foods. Food Processing on one hand is arresting the other competitors by heating, chemical treatment, packaging, etc. On the other hand, majority of foods in their natural forms are living entities (e.g. grains, fruits, vegetables, etc.). Living entities respire and carry out metabolism (change of compositions) most of which makes the foods unfit for human consumption. The Principle of Food Processing/Preservation is to stop or slow down the natural changes happening in foods. Food Scientistis achieve that by either or combination of heating (killing the living entities), drying (reducing moisture that serve as a medum for the reactions), cooling (slowing down the changes) and so on.
In addition to preservation, food processing is also done to achieve two other objectives: the second being improving the palatability (texture and taste/aroma - e.g. raw grain versus extruded-cooked breakfast cereals or from Ethiopian Food Culture, raw barley versus kollo. The third objective of food preservation is to add convenience to the food (packaging in small size with easy handling (carrying) and using.
What comes to the minds of many people when they think of Food Science is that Food Science is about cooking, something like the culinary arts and proactices. Only Food Scientists and others in the applied sciences and related areas understand that Food Science is an applied science with special considerations to consumer safety and satisfactions. To make people understand what food scientists/technologiests do, one needs to think of all the solid foods and liquid beverages on the shelves of a grocery store ot a supermarket. All those and many others that are produced in bulk and supplied to food and pharmaceutical industries are made ot modified by Food Science professionals. If y