Food chemistry

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 additives, flavors, and colors.

This discipline also encompasses how products change under certain food processing techniques and ways either to enhance or to prevent them from happening.

The scientific approach to food and nutrition arose with attention to agricultural chemistry in the works of J. G. Wallerius, Humphry Davy, and others.

Food chemistry concepts are often drawn from rheology, theories of transport phenomena, physical and chemical thermodynamics, chemical bonds, and interaction forces, quantum mechanics and reaction kinetics, biopolymer science, colloidal interactions, nucleation, glass transitions and freezing/disordered or noncrystalline solids, and thus has Food Physical Chemistry as a foundation area.

Such methods include dehydration, freezing, and refrigeration[7][8][9][10] This field encompasses the "physiochemical principles of the reactions and conversions that occur during the manufacture, handling, and storage of foods".

When combined in the way that the image to the right depicts, sucrose, one of the more common sugar products found in plants, is formed.

The term lipid comprises a diverse range of molecules and to some extent is a catchall for relatively water-insoluble or nonpolar compounds of biological origin, including waxes, fatty acids (including essential fatty acids), fatty-acid derived phospholipids, sphingolipids, glycolipids and terpenoids, such as retinoids and steroids.

Generally, the bulk of their structure is nonpolar or hydrophobic ("water-fearing"), meaning that it does not interact well with polar solvents like water.

[14] Consisting mainly of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and some sulfur, they also may contain iron, copper, phosphorus, or zinc.

In food, proteins are essential for growth and survival, and requirements vary depending upon a person's age and physiology (e.g., pregnancy).

Many aspects of the food industry use catalysts, including baking, brewing, dairy, and fruit juices, to make cheese, beer, and bread.

Dietary minerals in foods are large and diverse with many required to function while other trace elements can be hazardous if consumed in excessive amounts.

Such artificial flavours include methyl salicylate which creates the wintergreen odor and lactic acid which gives milk a tart taste.