food processing
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- University of Hawaiʻi OER - Food Processing
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Processed Foods and Health
- The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia - Food Processing
- Frontiers - Advancing the Role of Food Processing for Improved Integration in Sustainable Food Chains
- Open Washington Pressbooks - Food Processing
- Medicine LibreTexts - Food Processing and Food Safety
- European Food Information Council - Processed food: what is the purpose of food processing?
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Food Processing at a Crossroad
- Better Health Channel - Food processing and nutrition
food processing, any of a variety of operations by which raw foodstuffs are made suitable for consumption, cooking, or storage. A brief treatment of food processing follows. For fuller treatment of storage methods, see food preservation.
Food processing generally includes the basic preparation of foods, the alteration of a food product into another form (as in making preserves from fruit), and preservation and packaging techniques.
A number of food-processing innovations have even resulted in new products, such as concentrated fruit juices, freeze-dried coffee, and instant foods. Foods and food supplements have also been processed from such hitherto untapped sources as oilseeds (chiefly protein-rich soybeans and cottonseeds); mutant varieties of crops; leaves, grasses, and aquatic plants; and highly nutritious fish meal and concentrates.