Nowadays food processing has reached a level that is hard to imagine. Food processing is almost omnipresent. Almost all food consumed in almost all settings is now processed in some way. Varied types of food processing have beneficial or even negative effects on food, diet quality, and human health .
A range of new food processing technologies has been investigated and developed to modify or replace traditional food processing techniques so that better quality and more consumer preference-oriented foods can be manufactured [2]. The focus has been on quality over the last decade, enhancing the process efficiency, safety, productivity, and stability of food products in a healthier way .
The nutritional quality of food is influenced by factors such as quality of raw material, transportation, processing techniques, packaging, storage, and the whole food chain (farm to fork) .
Several existing methods and techniques included in food processing are used in order to transform raw material ingredients into food for people’s consumption. Food processing implies the use of clean, butchered, and harvested components to manufacture food products for the market demand. There are numerous ways to produce food .
Nowadays, an impressive displacement process is taking place worldwide within alimentary production patterns and systems, with regard to the ready-for-consumption food, which replaces traditional food based on fresh meals. However, not much attention is being paid to food processing, when it comes to dietary guidelines, classifications of food products, or epidemiology studies.
Scientists in this industry regard food processing in various ways. Certain processes such as drying, nonalcoholic fermenting, skimming, pasteurization, freezing, and vacuum-packing are rightly considered as beneficial in the food industry. However, other processes are regarded as less beneficial or even harmful for human health, namely, charring, hydrogenation, carbon dioxide addition, alcoholic fermenting, salt-pickling, and sugaring.
Nowadays, a drastic change has been noticed in how compliance and its consequences are approached. Due to regulatory requirements, and to a much less tolerant and most knowledgeable public, the industry has been in the critical public eye and placed under a much more thorough scrutiny and examination than ever before. As a consequence, at the local and state levels, there has been an increasing demand of documentation, in terms of legislation. It is very difficult to make a mistake and have no one find out about it. In the end, we are actually all consumers and expect safe food. Legislation is seeing a lot of issues related to allergens, organics, and package labeling .
Food safety technology has greatly interfered with and changed the way food industry specialists identify, react to, and communicate on specific food safety issues. Thus, the Internet and social media have impacted the industry by allowing an instant information exchange, which, at times, can include true or even false data, hence rightly entitling food companies to have a correspondingly adequate reaction. The legislation regarding the food industry attempts to regulate the management of pests, sanitation, and contamination with fewer toxic materials.
Having said that, there will always be people trying to “beat” any law or system; consequently it is extremely important to plan for that by being able to identify issues with strong systems and processes. The trap, however, lies in believing that laws or government can control food safety. For managing the hazards involved and the control over food safety, the legislation needs to constantly improve alongside with its enforcement, according to the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) model.
Romina Alina Marc (May 6th 2020). Introductory Chapter: A Global Presentation on Trends in Food Processing, Food Processing, Romina Alina Marc, Antonio Valero DĂaz and Guiomar Denisse Posada Izquierdo, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.91947. Available from: Introductory Chapter: A Global Presentation on Trends in Food Processing | IntechOpen