Food Processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food for consumption by humans or animals. The food processing industry utilizes these processes. Food processing often takes clean, harvested or slaughtered and butchered components and uses these to produce attractive and marketable food products. Similar process are used to produce animal feed.

Common Food Processing Techniques

  • Removal of unwanted outer layers, such as potato peeling or the skinning of Peaches
  • Chopping or slicing, of which examples include potato chips, diced carrot, or candied peel.
  • Mincing and macerating
  • Liquefaction, such as to produce fruit juice
  • Emulsification
  • Cooking, such as boiling, broiling, frying, steaming or grilling
  • Deep frying
  • Mixing
  • Addition of gas such as air entrainment for bread or gasification of soft drinks
  • Proofing
  • Spray drying

Extreme examples of food processing include the delicate preparation of deadly fugu fish, preparing space food for consumption under zero gravity, wine making, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets.

History
Food processing dates back to the prehistoric ages when crude processing incorporated slaughtering, fermenting, sun drying, preserving with salt, and various types of cooking (such as roasting, smoking, steaming, and oven baking). Salt-preservation was especially common for foods that constituted warrior and sailors' diets, up until the introduction of canning methods. These crude processing techniques remained essentially the same until the advent of the industrial revolution.

Modern food processing technology in the 19th and 20th century was largely developed to serve military needs. In 1809 Nicolas Appert invented a vacuum bottling technique that would supply food for French troops, and this contributed to the development of tinning and then canning by Peter Durand in 1810. Although initially expensive and somewhat hazardous due to the lead used in cans, canned goods would later become a staple around the world. Pasteurization, discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1862, was a significant advance in ensuring the micro-biological safety of food.

In the 20th century, World War II, the space race and the rising consumer society in developed countries (including the United States) contributed to the growth of food processing with such advances as spray drying, juice concentrates, freeze drying and the introduction of artificial sweeteners, colorants, and preservatives such as sodium benzoate and saccharine. 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.

Because the 20th century witnessed a rise in the pursuit of convenience, food processors especially marketed their products to middle-class working wives and mothers. Frozen foods (often credited to Clarence Birdseye) found their success in sales of juice concentrates and Swanson's "TV dinners". Processors utilized the perceived value of time to appeal to the postwar population, and this same appeal contributes to the success of convenience foods today.

Benefits
Benefits of food processing includes toxin removal, preservation, improving flavor, easing marketing and distribution tasks, and increasing food consistency. In addition, it increases seasonal availability of many foods, enables transportation of delicate perishable foods across long distances, and makes many kinds of foods safe to eat by removing the microorganisms. Modern supermarkets would not be feasible without modern food processing techniques, long voyages would not be possible, and military campaigns would be significantly more difficult and costly to execute.

Modern food processing also improves the quality of life for allergics, diabetics, and other people who cannot consume some common food elements. Food processing can also add extra nutrients.

Drawbacks
Food processing can lower the nutritional value of some foods. Some preservatives added or created during processing such as nitrites or sulfites may cause adverse health effects on some consumers. In addition, high quality and hygiene standards must be maintained to ensure consumer safety and failures to maintain adequate standards can have serious health consequences.

In general, fresh food that has not been processed other than by washing and simple kitchen preparation, may be expected to contain a higher proportion of naturally occurring vitamins, fibre and minerals than the equivalent product processed by the food industry. However fresh materials are more liable to early spoilage and are often unsuited to long distance transportation from source to shelf. Fresh materials, such as fresh produce and raw meats, are also more likely to harbour pathogenic microorganisms (e.g. Salmonella) capable of causing serious illnesses.

Industries
Food processing industries and practices include the following:

  • Meat packing plant
  • Industrial rendering
  • Slaughterhouse
  • Vegetable packing plant
  • Cannery

Food Processing Industry - India
The food processing industry is one of the largest sector in terms of production, export , consumption and growth prospects and covers a spectrum of products from sub-sectors comprising agriculture, horticulture, plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries. India is one of the major producers in the world with abundant availability of wide variety of crops, vegetables, fruits, flowers, seafood and live-stock.

The food processing sector comprises fruit and vegetables; meat and poultry; milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages, fisheries, plantation, grain processing and other consumer product groups like confectionery, chocolates and cocoa products, Soya-based products, mineral water, high protein foods.

Govenment has prioritized food processing sector and has provided incentives and fiscal reliefs in order to encourage commercialization, value addition to agricultural produce, minimizing pre/post harvest wastage, export growth and employment generation.

The Food Processing Industry

  • Ranks fifth in size representing 6.3 per cent of GDP.
  • Accounts for 13 per cent of the country’s exports and 6 per cent of total industrial investment.
  • Industry size is estimated at US$ 70 billion, including US$ 22 billion of value-added products.
  • The turnover of the total food market is approximately Rs.250,000 crores (US $ 69.4 billion) out of which value-added food products comprise Rs.80,000 crores (US $ 22.2 billion).

Major Challenges for the Food Processing Industry

  • Consumer education to make them aware that processed food can be more nutritious
  • Low price-elasticity for processed food products
  • Need for distribution network and cold chain
  • Backward-forward integration from farm to consumers
  • Development of marketing channels
  • Development of linkages between industry, government and institutions
  • Taxation in line with other nations
  • Streamlining of food laws

Ministry of Food Processing & Industries
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, set up in July 1988, is the main central agency of the Government responsible for developing a strong and vibrant food processing sector; with a view to create increased job opportunities in rural areas, enable the farmers to reap benefit from modern technology, create surplus for exports and stimulating demand for processed food

Subjects handled by the Ministry

  • Fruits and vegetable processing industry
  • Foodgrain milling industry
  • Dairy products
  • Processing of poultry and eggs, meat and meat products
  • Fish processing
  • Bread, oilseeds, meals (edible), breakfast foods, biscuits, confectionery(including cocoa processing and chocolate), malt extract, protein isolate,high protein food, weaning food and extrudeM/other ready to eat foodproducts
  • Beer, including non-alcoholic beer
  • Alcoholic drinks from non-molasses base
  • Aerated waters / soft drinks and other processed foods
  • Specialized packaging for food processing industries
  • Technical assistance and advice to food processing industry.