Define Food Science as a Discipline and Modern Developments?
As an undergraduate student you may have taken a course in food science and technology. Do you recall, what did the study of food science and/or food technology entailed? In this course, we begin our study by first defining what food science and technology is. Food Science is a discipline in which the biological and physical sciences and engineering are used to study the nature of foods, the reasons of their deterioration, and the standards underlying food processing. It deals with acquisition of new knowledge to elucidate the course of reactions or changes taking place in foods, if natural or induced by handling procedures. Food Technology, on the other hand, is application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution and use of safe, nutritious and wholesome food. It is application of the principles and facts of science, engineering, and mathematics to the processing, preservation, storage and utilization of foods. If you look at the definitions carefully, you would realise that food science and technology are inextricably linked. Because of their inter-linkages and commonality, you would find that they are usually treated as one field of study in many universities.