The application of food
science is even more important as the world population expands.
Food science makes food
available for billions of people. It allows us to produce and transport simple
products such as milk, juice or ice cream. It makes delicious foods we already
have even better. Without it, we would have severe shortages in food because we
wouldn’t be able to preserve or extend its shelf life, let alone perfect it.
Food items would be available only at the point of production. Supermarket
aisles would be practically empty.
It is with food science
that we can feed the world’s growing population from the urban metropolis to
remote destinations across the United States to nations halfway around the
globe.
The arc of food science
progress might begin with the processing of food by cooking it, then drying,
salting or freezing meat to preserve it. We have been adding color for
centuries, throwing in beets or sugar cane as sweeteners and using seaweed to
stabilize soups and stews. We have learned to pasteurize our milk for safety
and to homogenize it because we all prefer it that way.
The industrial revolution
and a move from farms to cities made the safe preservation and distribution of
food through science a necessity and eventually an industry. Today, advances in
food science are at the forefront of helping to address some of the world’s
most pressing problems beginning with basic nutrition and extending well in
healthy lifestyles. And considering that we all eat, every one of us has an
opinion about what and how we eat and how it should look and taste. We share
those opinions at the dinner table and, increasingly, in online mediums like
this one.
Whether the subject is
GMOs, gluten, sweeteners, coloring agents, stabilizers or preservatives we now
have an abundance of opinion – much of it agenda-driven, substituting volume
and accusation for facts. All this information and opinion on the food sciences
has made us somehow less informed and more frightened.
We believe that it is
reasonable to ask not only ‘What’s for dinner?’ but
‘What’s in dinner?’
Our Focussed Research themes-
Mushroom Food development
Mushroom Preservation
Food Chemistry/Biochemistry
Flavor Chemistry
Food Microbiology & Biotechnology
Food Engineering
Food Processing
Seafood Processing
Sensory Evaluation
Enology and Brewing