Food processing
Primary food processing turns agricultural products, such as raw wheat kernels or livestock, into something that can eventually be eaten.
This category includes ingredients that are produced by ancient processes such as drying, threshing, winnowing and milling grain, shelling nuts, and butchering animals for meat.
Baking bread, regardless of whether it is made at home, in a small bakery, or in a large factory, is an example of secondary food processing.
[2] Fermenting fish and making wine, beer, and other alcoholic products are traditional forms of secondary food processing.
Food processing dates back to the prehistoric ages when crude processing incorporated fermenting, sun drying, preserving with salt, and various types of cooking (such as roasting, smoking, steaming, and oven baking), Such basic food processing involved chemical enzymatic changes to the basic structure of food in its natural form, as well served to build a barrier against surface microbial activity that caused rapid decay.
Examples of ready-meals also date back to before the preindustrial revolution, and include dishes such as Cornish pasty and Haggis.
In 1809, Nicolas Appert invented a hermetic bottling technique that would preserve food for French troops which ultimately contributed to the development of tinning, and subsequently canning by Peter Durand in 1810.
In the 20th century, World War II, the space race and the rising consumer society in developed countries contributed to the growth of food processing with such advances as spray drying, evaporation, juice concentrates, freeze drying and the introduction of artificial sweeteners, colouring agents, and such preservatives as sodium benzoate.
In the late 20th century, products such as dried instant soups, reconstituted fruits and juices, and self cooking meals such as MRE food ration were developed.
Frozen foods (often credited to Clarence Birdseye) found their success in sales of juice concentrates and "TV dinners".
[citation needed] The extremely varied modern diet is only truly possible on a wide scale because of food processing.
The food industry offers products that fulfill many different needs: e.g. fully prepared ready meals that can be heated up in the microwave oven within a few minutes.
The USDA conducted a study of nutrient retention in 2004, creating a table of foods, levels of preparation, and nutrition.
[citation needed] Foods that have undergone processing, including some commercial baked goods, desserts, margarine, frozen pizza, microwave popcorn and coffee creamers, sometimes contain trans fats.
Although the preservatives and other food additives used in many processed foods are generally recognized as safe, a few may cause problems for some individuals, including sulfites, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors and flavors, sodium nitrate, BHA and BHT, olestra, caffeine and monosodium glutamate — a flavor enhancer.
