Sustainable Food Processing

Book excerpt: Sustainable Food Processing Food processors face numerous challenges from ever-changing economic, social and environmental conditions. With global inequalities increasing, ingredient costs climbing, and global climate change becoming a major political issue, food producers must now address environmental concerns, social responsibility and economic viability when shaping their food processing techniques for the future. Food production, preservation and distribution contribute to greenhouse gas emissions from the agri-food sector, therefore food producers require detailed, industrially relevant information that addresses these challenges. The food industry, as one of the world’s largest users of energy, must embrace new ways of meeting the needs of the present without compromising future viability. It is important that the industry does not merely focus on simple indicators of sustainability that are relatively easy to calculate and hold appeal for governments and the public, but which do not properly address the many dimensions of sustainability. This book provides a comprehensive overview of both economic sustainability and the environmental concerns that relate to food processing. It is divided into four sections. Part one deals with principles and assessment of sustainability in the context of food processing; Part two summarises sustainability in various food processing applications within the food industry; Part three considers sustainability in food manufacturing operations that are vital in food production systems; and Part four addresses sustainable food distribution and consumption. As the most comprehensive reference book for industry to date, this book will provide engineers, educators, researchers, policy makers and scientists working in the food industry with a valuable resource for their work.