Food science is the
basic science and
applied science
Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted ...
of
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
; its scope starts at overlap with
agricultural science
Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Profession ...
and
nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of
food safety
Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from t ...
and
food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...
, informing the development of
food technology
Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products.
Early scientific research into food technology concentrated on food preservation. Nic ...
.
Food science brings together multiple scientific disciplines. It incorporates concepts from fields such as
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
,
physics,
physiology,
microbiology
Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...
, and
biochemistry.
Food technology
Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products.
Early scientific research into food technology concentrated on food preservation. Nic ...
incorporates concepts from
chemical engineering, for example.
Activities of food scientists include the development of new food products, design of processes to produce these foods, choice of packaging materials,
shelf-life studies, sensory evaluation of products using
survey panels or potential consumers, as well as microbiological and chemical testing.
Food scientists may study more fundamental phenomena that are directly linked to the production of food products and its properties.
Definition
The
Institute of Food Technologists defines food science as "the discipline in which the engineering,
biological
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...
, and physical sciences are used to study the
nature of foods, the causes of
deterioration
Deterioration may refer to:
* Worsening of health
* Physical wear
See also
* Decadence (disambiguation)
* Degeneracy (disambiguation)
* ''Deteriorata'', a parody of ''Desiderata''
* Decay
* Decline
Decline may refer to:
*Decadence, involves a ...
, the principles underlying
food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...
, and the improvement of foods for the consuming public". The textbook ''Food Science'' defines food science in simpler terms as "the application of basic sciences and engineering to study the physical, chemical, and biochemical nature of foods and the principles of food processing".
Disciplines
Some of the subdisciplines of food science are described below.
Food chemistry
Food chemistry is the study of
chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as
meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
,
poultry,
lettuce,
beer, and
milk.
It is similar to
biochemistry in its main components such as
carbohydrates,
lipids, and
protein, but it also includes areas such as water,
vitamins,
minerals,
enzymes,
food additive
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives have been used for centuries as part of an effort to preserve food, for example vinegar (pickling), salt (salt ...
s,
flavor
Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception.
Flavor or flavour may also refer to:
Science
*Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...
s, and
colors. This discipline also encompasses how products change under certain
food processing
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...
techniques and ways either to enhance or to prevent them from happening.
Food physical chemistry
Food physical chemistry is the study of both physical and chemical interactions in foods in terms of physical and chemical principles applied to food systems, as well as the application of physicochemical techniques and instrumentation for the study and analysis of foods.
Food engineering
Food engineering is the industrial processes used to
manufacture food.
Food microbiology
Food microbiology is the study of the
microorganisms that inhabit, create, or
contaminate food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
, including the study of microorganisms causing food spoilage.
"Good" bacteria, however, such as
probiotics, are becoming increasingly important in food science.
In addition, microorganisms are essential for the production of foods such as
cheese
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
,
yogurt,
bread
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...
,
beer,
wine and, other
fermented foods.
Food technology
Food technology is the technological aspects.
Early scientific research into food technology concentrated on food preservation. Nicolas Appert's development in 1810 of the canning process was a decisive event. The process wasn't called canning then and Appert did not really know the principle on which his process worked, but canning has had a major impact on food preservation techniques.
Foodomics
In 2009, Foodomics was defined as "a discipline that studies the Food and Nutrition domains through the application and integration of advanced
-omics
The branches of science known informally as omics are various disciplines in biology whose names end in the suffix '' -omics'', such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, phenomics and transcriptomics. Omics aims at the collectiv ...
technologies to improve consumer's well-being, health, and knowledge". Foodomics requires the combination of food chemistry, biological sciences, and data analysis.
Foodomics greatly helps the scientists in an area of food science and nutrition to gain a better access to data, which is used to analyze the effects of food on human health, etc. It is believed to be another step towards better understanding of development and application of technology and food. Moreover, the study of foodomics leads to other omics sub-disciplines, including nutrigenomics which is the integration of the study of nutrition, gene and omics.
Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur in cooking. Its program includes three axes, as cooking was recognized to have three components, which are social, artistic and technical.
Quality control
Quality control involves the causes, prevention and communication dealing with
food-borne illness.
Quality control also ensures that product meets specs to ensure the customer receives what they expect from the packaging to the physical properties of the product itself.
Sensory analysis
Sensory analysis is the study of how consumers' senses perceive food.
Careers in Food Science
The five most common college degrees leading to a career in food science are: Food science/technology (66%), biological sciences (12%), business/marketing (10%), nutrition (9%), and chemistry (8%).
Careers available to food scientists include: food technologist, research and development (R&D), quality control, flavor chemistry, laboratory director, food analytical chemist, technical sales.
The five most common positions for food scientists are: food scientist/technologist (19%), product developer (12%), quality assurance/control director (8%), other R&D/scientific/technical (7%), director of research (5%).
By country
Australia
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is the federal government agency for scientific research in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and biological control research stations in France and Mexico. It has nearly 6,500 employees.
South Korea
The Korean Society of Food Science and Technology, or KoSFoST, claims to be the first society in South Korea for food science.
United States
In the United States, food science is typically studied at
land-grant universities. Some of the country's pioneering food scientists were women who had attended chemistry programs at land-grant universities (which were state-run and largely under state mandates to allow for sex-blind admission), but then graduated and had difficulty finding jobs due to widespread sexism in the chemistry industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finding conventional career paths blocked, they found alternative employment as instructors in
home economics departments and used that as a base to launch the foundation of many modern food science programs.
The main US organization regarding food science and
food technology
Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products.
Early scientific research into food technology concentrated on food preservation. Nic ...
is the
Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois, which is the US member organisation of the
International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST).
See also
Publications
Books
Food Science is an academic topic so most Food Science books are textbooks.
Journals
Notes and references
Further reading
* Wanucha, Genevieve (February 24, 2009)
"Two Happy Clams: The Friendship that Forged Food Science" ''MIT Technology Review''.
External links
*
*
* Learn abou
Food Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Food Science
Applied sciences