Food and drink industry

Food processing and manufacturing: the old and new technologies integrate to provide innovative solutions

Food is processed to make it more palatable or digestible, for which the traditional methods include boiling, frying, flour-milling, bread-, yogurt-, and cheese-making, and brewing; to prevent the growth of bacteria, moulds, yeasts, and other micro-organisms; or to preserve it from spoilage caused by the action of enzymes within the food that change its chemical composition, resulting in changes in flavour, odour, colour, and texture.

These changes are not always harmful or undesirable; examples of desirable changes are the ripening of cream in butter manufacture, flavour development of cheese, and the hanging of meat to tenderize the muscle fibres. Fatty or oily foods suffer oxidation of the fats, which makes them rancid.

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 leisiure-time to appeal to the postwar population, and this same appeal contributes to the success of convenience foods today.