Introduction to Food Processing and Food Science
Scope of the domain
This domain introduces the difference between food science - the study of composition, behaviour and safety of food - and food processing - the deliberate conversion of raw agricultural produce into stable, safe, convenient products. The exam tests the food chain from harvest to consumer, the reasons for processing, and the classification of processing into primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
Core rules
- Primary processing makes a commodity marketable: cleaning, sorting, grading, dehusking, milling, chilling.
- Secondary processing changes the form: parboiling, pulping, baking, fermentation, canning.
- Tertiary processing creates ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook convenience foods and involves multi-ingredient formulation, branding and distribution.
- Processing objectives are preservation, safety, convenience, value addition, transportability, year-round supply and waste utilisation.
- Food science draws on chemistry, microbiology, engineering, nutrition and sensory science.
- India is a major producer of milk, fruits, vegetables and cereals, yet the share of produce that is processed remains low compared with production; this gap is the entrepreneurship opportunity.
Worked example
Trace tomatoes to ketchup and name the level of each step. Receiving, washing, sorting and grading are primary operations because they prepare the raw material without changing its form. Pulping, evaporation to concentrate solids, adding salt, sugar, vinegar and spice, homogenising, pasteurising and filling are secondary processing because they transform the pulp into a formulated product. Labelling, cartoning, palletising and ambient distribution are tertiary activities. The reasoning is that classification depends on the degree of transformation, not on the size of the factory.
Traps
Do not describe all processing as ultra-processing; minimal processing such as washing and chilling is still processing. Do not confuse food science with nutrition alone. Do not claim processing always lowers nutritional value - blanching, for example, can protect colour and vitamins by inactivating enzymes.