Food Science (Paperback)

Introduction: Food Science as a Discipline
Food Science can be defined as the application of the basic sciences and engineering to study the fundamental physical, chemical, and biochemical nature of foods and the principles of food processing. Food technology is the use of the information generated by food science in the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, and distribution, as it affects the consumption of safe, nutritious and wholesome food. As such, food science is a broad discipline which contains within it many specializations such as in food microbiology, food engineering, and food chemistry. Because food interacts directly with people, some food scientists are also interested in the psychology of food choice. These individuals work with the sensory properties of foods.
Food engineers deal with the conversion of raw agricultural products such as wheat into more finished food products such as flour or baked goods. Food processing contains many of the same elements as chemical and mechanical engineering. Virtually all foods are derived from living cells. Thus, foods are for the most part composed of "edible biochemicals," and so biochemists often work with foods to understand how processing or storage might chemically affect foods and their biochemistry.
Likewise, nutritionists are involved in food manufacture to ensure that foods maintain their expected nutritional content. Other food scientists work for the government in order to ensure that the foods we buy are safe, wholesome, and honestly represented. At one time, the majority of scientists, technologists, and production personnel in the food field did not receive formal training in food science as it is recognized today. This was because very few universities offered a curriculum leading to a degree in food science. Many of these institutions had departments that were organized along commodity lines such as meats or dairy products. The food industry, government, and academic institutions continue to employ many persons who received their original technical training in dairy science, meat science, cereal chemistry, pomology, vegetable crops, and horticulture. Many others were trained as specialists in the basic sciences and applied fields of chemistry, physics, microbiology, statistics, and engineering.
Such training has had the advantages generally associated with specialization. It also has resulted in certain limitations, especially for commodity-oriented individuals in seg- ments of the food industry undergoing rapid technological change. Hence, the more general discipline of food science was established. Now, more than 40 universities in the United States and many more around the world offer degrees in food science.