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The study of food science emphasises on the composition of foods and the changes that occur when they subjected to food processing. Functional foods are foods that promote health beyond providing basic nutrition. Our nutritional status, health, physical and mental faculties depend
on
the food we eat and how we eat it. Access to good quality food has been man's main endeavour from the earliest days of human existence. Safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality. "Food safety" implies absence or acceptable and safe levels of contaminants, adulterants, naturally occurring toxins or any other substance
that may make food injurious to health on an acute or chronic basis. Food quality can be considered as a complex characteristic of food that determines its value or acceptability to consumers. Besides safety, quality attributes include: nutritional value; organoleptic properties such as appearance, colour, texture, taste; and functional properties. Food systems in developing countries are not always as well organised and developed
as in the industrialised world. Moreover,
problems of growing population, urbanisation, lack of resources to deal with pre- and post- harvest losses in food, and problems of environmental and food hygiene mean that food systems in developing countries continueto be stressed, adversely affecting quality and safety of food supplies.
People in developing countriesare therefore exposed to a wide range of potential food quality and safety risks. In 2020, the world population will most likely reach 7.6 billion, an increase of 31% over the mid-1996 population of 5.8 billion. Approximately 98% of the projected population growth over this period will take place in developing countries. It has also been estimated that between
the years 1995
and 2020 the developing world's urban population will double, reaching 3.4 billion. This
overall increase in population
and in the urban population in particular, poses great challenges to food systems. Intensification of agriculture and animal husbandry; more efficient food handling, processing and distribution systems; introduction of newer technologies increase food availability to meet the needs of growing populations. Some of these practices and technologies may also pose potential problems of food safety and nutritional quality and call for special attention in order to ensure consumer protection.
Introduction to Food science
Food science is a discipline concerned with all technical aspects of food, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption. It is considered one of the agricultural sciences, and is usually considered distinct from the field of nutrition. Examples of the 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 the product with trained expert panels or potential consumers, as well as microbiological and chemical testing. Food scientists at universities may study more fundamental phenomena that are directly linked to
the productionof
particular food product and its properties. This site give detailed information about nutrition, food chemistry, food microbiology, analysis of food, instruments used for food sample analysis, food packaging, food preservation, toxicology and post harvested technology in food.
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