Food science is a study concerned with all technical aspects of foods, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption, an ideology commonly referred to as "from field to fork". It is considered one of the life sciences and is usually considered distinct from the field of nutrition.
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Activities of food scientists include the development of new food products, design of processes to produce these foods, choice of packaging materials, shelf-life studies, sensory evaluation of the product with trained expert panels or potential consumers, as well as microbiological and chemical testing. Food scientists at universities may study more fundamental phenomena that are directly linked to the production of a particular food product and its properties. In the U.S., food science is typically studied at land-grant universities.
Food science is a highly interdisciplinary applied science. It incorporates concepts from many different fields including microbiology, chemical engineering, and biochemistry.
Some of the subdisciplines of food science include:
The main organization in the United States regarding food science and food technology is the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, which is the US member organisation of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST).
Some popular books on some aspects of food science or kitchen science have been written by Harold McGee and Howard Hillman.
In the October 2006 issue of Food Technology, 2006-07 IFT President Dennis R. Heldman noted that the IFT Committee on Higher Education gave the current definition of food science as follows: "Food Science is the discipline in which the engineering, biological, and physical sciences are used to study the nature of foods, the causes of deterioration, the principles underlying food processing, and the improvement of foods for the consuming public."[1]
See Food technology
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