What are the reasons of Food Processing?
The reasons for food processing may vary, but the main objectives are to:
- Preserve the nutritive quality of food by preventing them from spoilage due to microbes and other spoilage agents,
- Prolong the shelf-life (e.g. preservation). This is because the processed food is usually more stable than the raw food,
- Enhance the quality (e.g. cooking),
- Ensure that food is safe for future consumption,
- Ensure the availability of many food products throughout the year,
- Ease for storage, transportation and distribution systems, and
- Create employment and to generate additional income.
Food processing, you would have realized, is practiced in some form or the other in most of our homes. Have you ever thought about its origin? How did it start? How did it develop? The next section presents the historical development of food processing. You will find this discussion interesting.