by Omoruvwie Ejiroghene

Created on: December 18, 2006   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

Viewed from a very narrow angle,one can simply say that food science and technology start from the farm gate i.e after crop harvest or animal slaughter and ends in the dining table in form of a meal.
Food is a chemical substance either liquid or solid which is ingested,digested, absorb and assimilated by the body. it provides energy for work and other activities,promotes growth and repair of body tissues and protects the body against diseases and regulate body processes.

Science of food may be defined as the knowledge of science which is systematically and coherently applied to study the nature composition behaviour and the the interaction of food materials or substances under various condition.This aspect of science involves the study of characteristics of food which are subject to scientific measurement and evaluation and knowledge of the characteristics is applied in food processing.
Food is transported from place to place either from farms in the village or farm settlements to urban areas or cities or from country to country. This involves the knowledge of storage and transportation techniques.it follows that food must be protected from spoilage using a wide range of preservation techniques. Therefore from the point of production, food has to be subjected to processes which can convert it from its raw form to that which it can be used in the homes,restaurants or hotels and even stocked in supermarkets, warehouses etc without spoilage.
In recent times,food science and technology is not just restricted to post harvest treatment of the food alone but has progressed further into the production of food itself in the farms.This means,therefore,that there is now a great influence of science and technology on agriculture and other processes which lead to production of food such as modulation on crop productions to the farmers to follows in producing certain crops that can conform to processing conditions which will meet specification of the desired food product.Also the processor should have a good
knowledge on nutritional quality of his product because it is not enough to produce aesthetically, attractive product which may make you salivate and quench hunger or eat for eating sake but it is important to ensure that the product meets good standard or specifications in terms of nutritional quality to ensure maximum benefit
to the consumer in terms of nutritional quality,safety and cost.
The new scientific revolution or breakthrough is biotechnology, the knowledge of which is now used or applied in food production.In the next article, we will learn about nutrition so as to known the effect of storage and processing of food components so that the status of processed food or product will be known in terms of nutritional food quality.

Learn more about this author, Omoruvwie Ejiroghene.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.